How Is A Coral Reef Like A Coffee Table?

The above image is a picture of the coffee table in my office. It's also a picture of the couch that I sleep on all too often, but that's a story for another time. Notice the "snowflake" base to the table? It's the topic of a lot of discussion by visitors. It's an EcoReefs artificial reef module that was given to me a couple years ago by EcoReef founder (and fellow former UC Berkeley colleague) Michael Moore.

As you might surmise given the terrible state of coral reefs these days, artificial reefs are big news and could potentially become big business. While not technically illustrating an artificial reef, The Other 95% newbie Mike Haubrich recently wrote a post about the BioRock process of electro-accretion as a means of stimulating new coral growth. I'll withhold my comments on the BioRock process for this post, but suffice to say I wouldn't advise anyone cashing-out their 401K plans to invest in the process in the near future. Again, a story for another day.

The artificial reef landscape is studded with assorted ventures and approaches. There's everything from low tech rock or coral rubble mounds as reef growing surface to medium tech methods such as sinking old ships and wrecks or employing permanent artificial reef structures called Reef Balls to high tech approaches such as electro-mineral accretion. All have their strengths and limitations. Personally, I like working to keep natural reefs alive and healthy. But sometimes circumstances may call for more aggressive recovery methods. Such is the case with certain unsustainable fishing practices on coral reefs.

Dynamite fishing, or blast fishing, is a profound and widespread threat to coral reefs throughout the Indo-Pacific. Though generally illegal, it is practiced in more than thirty countries. The basic idea is that a small bottle (often a beer or Coka-Cola bottle) is filled with gunpowder, fitted with a fuse, lit, then dropped onto a shallow reef area. The resultant explosion stuns or kills fish and makes them easy to collect. I've been underwater in areas of Papua New Guinea and Indonesia and have heard the thud of bottle bombs igniting from miles away. I've also visited the blast sites from former fishing areas. Where once lush coral growth existed, only rubble and empty holes remain.

Blast fishing kills fish indiscriminately and pulverizes living coral to particle or grain-sized fragments. Repeated blasting creates vast deserts of loose coral rubble that shifts easily in current flow creating unsuitable settling surface for coral larvae. Lacking suitable habitat, reef fish quickly abandon a demolished reef and local fisheries collapse.

Large blasted areas are slow to recover because coral planula larvae have difficulty establishing on loose or sandy substrate. Young corals that successfully settle easily topple-over on the unstable substrate or quickly become smothered by sand or algae. Recent studies by Helen Fox and Roy Caldwell at UC Berkeley Dept. of Integrative Bio have referred to frequently blasted areas as “killing fields” for new coral recruits and indicate that if recovery is even possible it can take more than a century for a reef to rebound by natural means once the live coral cover has been destroyed.

Enter the EcoReefs approach. Founded in 2001, by Dr. Michael Moore, Ecoreefs are designed to be a large-scale, ecologically significant intervention for use in coral reef areas where the natural coral growth has suffered significant damage or loss, such as from dynamite fishing. EcoReefs are constructed out of a white ceramic, a lot like an unglazed toilet. About a meter across and weighing close to 50 pounds, their form was inspired by the shape of staghorn coral. The idea behind their development was to provide a non-reactive, stable, porous surface for larval coral to settle upon. Anchor enough of them in the loose rubble of a previously blasted areas, the theory goes, and a new reef will eventually take root on the welcoming arms of the EcoReef module.

So how are things working out? You have to see to believe. In one study site in the Indonesian marine protected area of Bunaken National Park, Moore and Seacology installed 620 EcoReef modules in an enormous array. Even at its earliest stage before coral or fish return, a large EcoReefs array is an impressive sight. The 3-dimensional modules immediately create complex reef-like habitat over large areas. And what I particularly love about Michael's approach is that it isn't just a swarm of scientists descending on a site to salvage the reef. Instead, he and Seacology engage local communities to take ownership in the reef rehabilitation. Sure, some of these folks may have also been responsible for the blast fishing in the first place. But for communities to reduce or eliminate unsustainable practices, conservationists have to be willing to engage them in a learning process.

Only a few weeks after being submerged, the white surfaces of the EcoReef modules darken with a film of diatoms and algae. Eventually, corraline red algae begins to grow across the surface. Within months, reef fish return to live among the branching arms of the modules. And in as little as two years, coral recruits and sponges can be seen growing on the module surfaces. One of the techniques used to jump-start growth on the EcoReefs is "coral transplants." Chunks of loose, living coral were physically attached to the EcoReefs with small plastic ties. Oddly, those transplant modules have done no better than the ones left to their own devices.




It's estimated that EcoReefs can shorten recovery times of heavily-blasted reefs to perhaps as little as 7 to 15 years. Natural recovery time for badly damaged coral reefs are long -- on the order of 50 to 100 years or more. While not that long in the scale of earth time, certainly a longer recovery process than most people will witness in their own lives.

Moore currently has EcoReefs arrays deployed throughout Indonesia and the Philippines (areas with some of the most intensive blast fishing activity). If the arrays continue to demonstrate encouraging results, their utility may spread to other areas where reefs have suffered large scale damage from human activity or even severe storm damage. Simply planting EcoReefs arrays alone, however, won't be enough. Artificial reefs, either sunken ships or EcoReefs modules, attract fish. And fish attract fishers. Effective marine resource management, including regulations and enforcement, is needed to ensure that long-term reef rehabilitation efforts aren't undermined by short-term profit.

I get a lot of compliments on my "artsy" coffee table. I'm happy, in this case, that art imitates life.