Posted: September 9th, 2022

The Use of Scrapped Vehicles as Artificial Reefs to Attract Marine Life to the Barren

The Use of Scrapped Vehicles as Artificial Reefs to Attract Marine Life to the Barren, Sandy Submarine Slopes of Abandoned Reef

Introduction
The idea to build artificial reefs to attract marine life to the barren, sandy submarine slopes of the abandoned reef is not new, and it has been in existence since the 19th century. Traditionally, submerged shipwrecks were the most commonly used forms of the artificial reef with other offshore structures such as bridges also playing the role of artificial reefs. Today Marine resource managers often create artificial reefs intending to enhance the habitats of reef organisms such as fish. Among the materials that are popularly used to make these artificial reefs includes wood, rocks, cinder blocks and sometimes old tires (Franzen, 2001). Several companies have been specializing in the design and manufacture of artificial reefs that are meant to last for a long time using materials such as concrete, steel, and limestone, among others (US Department of Commerce, & National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2013). In 2000, the City of New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) came up with the proposal of sinking in nearly 1300 subway cars into the Mid-Atlantic coast to act as artificial reefs (Franzen, 2001). Despite the fact that this initiative would have numerous benefits by supporting the fauna around the Mid-Atlantic coast, several environmental groups raised concerns regarding the effectiveness of this project and the possible dangers arising from it. This paper advocates for the proposal to use scrapped vehicles as artificial reefs for attract marine life to the barren, sandy submarine slopes of abandoned reef and give recommendations on whether such a project should proceed or not.
The Benefits of Artificial Reefs
Perhaps the clearest benefit associated with artificial reefs is their ability to create a new habitat for marine creates to live. The development of artificial reefs is seen to be most natural strategy for protecting marine habitat because it provides shelter and an environment where aquatic creatures can mate and reproduce. The fact that marine creatures cannot be able to live and reproduce in mid-waters because of the powerful ocean currents makes artificial reefs to be very important establishments. Marine resource managers recognized that accidental or natural shipwrecks made excellent fishing grounds. This factor led them to submerge wooden structures in an attempt to support and attract reef fish (Franzen, 2001). Additionally, other crustaceans tend to attach themselves to these large submerged structures, thus spurring the growth of underneath worms and grasses, among other organisms (Franzen, 2001). These factors clearly demonstrate the benefits that artificial reefs would have on the marine environment.
Another benefit of artificial reefs is that they tend to be a great way of getting rid of the large objects that on ordinary occasions might be placed on landfills. For example, in the MTA’s proposal, it would result in approximately 19 to 23 million pounds of the subway cars metals finding its way to the ocean floor (Franzen, 2001). As a consequence, the transit authority saving from this move would be estimated to be about $11 to $13 million of disposal costs (Franzen, 2001). These figures represent huge savings in costs and it is money that could be utilized in other valuable activities aimed at improving the City’s transit system.
Finally, artificial reefs are known to assist in the rebuilding of fish population, thus leading to generation of more revenue through offshore fishing. Additionally, artificial reefs provide fishermen with new fishing locations thus easing pressure on the existing natural reefs. However, although some scientist argues against the idea that artificial reefs won’t increase the fishing population, they do agree that artificial reefs make a huge contribution in preventing overfishing (Franzen, 2001). Artificial reefs ensure that the fishing population is spread out more widely, a factor that will ensure that it will now be more harder to catch the existing fishing population, thus preventing overfishing.
The Concerns about Artificial Reefs
Although there are numerous benefits associated with the establishment of artificial reefs, environmentalist has often raised concerns in regards to some of the issues associated with these artificial reefs. Some environmentalists have argued that the materials used to make artificial reefs can be harmful to the marine ecosystem with cars having asbestos materials that are a great concern to some marine-life environmentalist (Franzen, 2001). According to Kristen Milligan, who is a scientist at Clean Ocean Action, ingestion or inhalation of asbestos fibre could end up being lodged in the human tissue to form lesions which can lead to the development of chronic illness such as cancer (Franzen, 2001). Milligan adds that marine life would experience a similar effect which explains why the proposal to use the subway cars as artificial reefs needs to be evaluated further.
However, Milligan’s narrate has been countered by another group of scientist who argue that asbestos material would cause very little harm to the marine life. This assumption is based on studies of the impacts of asbestos materials on the water which showed that it takes millions of fibre in every litre so that any lesion can be detected in fish (Franzen, 2001). This suggestion therefore implies that using subway cars as artificial reef would have very negligible impact on the marine life because it would contribute a very negligible lesion concentration to the ocean waters.
Another concern has been that while tanks and ships would take ages to corrode underneath the ocean, refrigerators and automobiles corrodes much faster, where in some cases they can last for only 4 to 5 years (Franzen, 2001). This fact makes subways cars as unsuitable materials for making artificial reefs. While ships and tanks can last for centuries, subway cars would fall slightly short of this length with researchers who sank 5 Philadelphia subway cars in 1990 estimating that these steel structures would last close to 20 years before they can collapse completely (Franzen, 2001). Some environmentalists have suggested that 20 years would be a short time to make an impact on marine life. However, this narrative has been dismissed by the suggestion that most organisms in the marine world are short-lived in nature e and do not require decades to mature into adults (Franzen, 2001). As such, subway cars would still form good artificial reef materials since they would support the livelihood of several generations of aquatic life.
Conclusion
From the preceding, even though there have been concerns among environmentalist on the use of subway cars as artificial reefs, these concerns are not substantial to prevent the implementation of this proposal. Moreover, there are numerous benefits of undertaking this project compared to the potential drawbacks that would result from it. Taking this project creates new habitat for marine creatures to live, and it is also a great way to get rid of large objects that on ordinary occasions, might be placed on landfills. Additionally, artificial reefs are known to assist in the rebuilding of the fish population, thus leading to the generation of more revenue through offshore fishing. Although some environmentalists have raised concerns in regards to the asbestos materials in these subway cars, research suggests that it would have a very negligible impact on the marine life because it would contribute a very lesion little concentration to the ocean waters. As such, we can conclude that the proposal to use the subway cars as artificial reefs is a brilliant idea that should be implemented.

References
Franzen, H. (2001, August 6). The Submerged Subway Reef. Retrieved from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-submerged-subway-reef/
US Department of Commerce, & National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (2013, June 1). What is an artificial reef? Retrieved from https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/artificial-reef.html

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