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  PlanetArk 12 Oct 07
Israel Builds Red Sea Concrete Reef to Lure Divers
Story by Doron Berti

National Geographic 25 Sep 07
New Artificial Reefs "Grow" From Mideast Peace Deal
Mati Milstein in Tel Aviv, Israel for National Geographic News

Israel 21C 13 Aug 07
Israeli-Jordanian team set up first artificial coral reef in the Red Sea

A team of Israeli and Jordanian scientists has developed the world's first artificial coral reef. The reef proposes a unique new approach to conservation of the sea and has widespread potential use around the globe

By Nicky Blackburn

Take a dive off the coast of Eilat these days and you're liable to find yourself swimming around a huge yellow concrete and wire construction that stretches four yards up from the seabed, is four yards wide, and is full of holes.

No, this isn't some strange new structure left behind by an alien race, or cargo dropped from a sinking container shop, this is the first artificial coral reef in the Red Sea.

The reef, which was developed by the Israel Nature Parks Authority and a team of academics from the National Center for Mariculture at the Eilat campus of Ben Gurion University, the Inter-University Institute for Marine Sciences in Eilat, the Hebrew University, and the Marine Science Station in Aqaba, is a unique new approach to conservation in the Red Sea and part of a joint co-operative project between Israel and Jordan

Coral reefs are one of the most varied forms of life on the planet, and the range and richness of the species found there are comparable to that of the tropical rain forests.

In recent years, underwater diving has become an increasingly popular sport and the breathtaking reefs of the Red Sea area, which are different from any other reefs around the world, have suffered dreadfully as a result.

"The number of visitors is large and the size of the reefs is limited and too small," explains Dr. Nadav Shashar, the supervisor of the research project, and a marine biologist at the National Center for Mariculture.

"Because of the increase in the number of visitors, the coral reefs are unable to overcome the damage caused and are beginning to die out. If we don't act quickly, it's only a question of time before the excellent breeding conditions in the north bay become barren. Many bodies are aware of the problem and are seeking a way to solve it."

Part of the problem is novice divers.

"They kick up the sand, or damage the corals by accident. Multiple that by 100,000 people and that's considerable damage," says Shashar. "These people don't mean to harm the reefs, but they just don't know how to dive properly."

The developers hope that the artificial reef will create a new attraction for these divers, steering them away from the natural reefs, reducing the pressure there and enabling them to recover from some of the damage inflicted on them over the last few years.

At the same time, the Tamar reef which is located near Coral Beach also provides the researchers with a unique underwater laboratory, enabling them to observe and unravel the development and growth of this unique and complex ecosystem.

"Our task is to understand which factors bring about the development and proliferation of coral reefs, to understand the growing processes of the coral and fish populations and to put this into practice in establishing artificial coral reefs that will attract tourists," Shashar tells ISRAEL21c.

Shashar and his team, which includes Prof. Zvi Abramski, from the Department of Life Sciences, Dr. Ariel Diamant of the National Center for Mariculture, student Omer Pollack and the Israel Nature Parks Authority, are funded by the United States USAID-MERC program and the British Whitely Fund for Nature.

The reef was first installed in May this year and has already attracted a great deal of marine life. There are now 32 species of fish swimming through or living on the reef - half the number normally found in the reefs of the Red Sea. These include bass, sea goldfish and butterfly fish. Sea urchins, fan worms, tunicates, and tubeworms can also be found there.

At present, no coral has been planted on the reef, and that's why some of the fish are still missing.

If the scientists were to let nature take its course, it would take between 80-100 years for the corals to flourish.

Shashar does not want to wait that long so the team has a nursery in Haifa where they are growing 13 different types of coral. These corals will be planted in the specially prepared holes in the reef structure and the work begins in the fall.

There are 1,000 colonies to plant, and this will be the first time in history that a team has tried to do this.

Shashar is very excited at the prospect. "This gives us a very unique opportunity to understand what makes a reef and how the corals interact with each other," he explains. "In the natural world corals grow in a certain order, replacing one another in a specific sequence until they reach the climax community, which you find in mature reefs. We want to discover if we have to plant the corals in that order or whether we can go straight to the climax community."

The team plan to plant a good variety of corals. "There's a general acceptance that to get a high diversity of fish, you need a high diversity of corals. We will be checking this," says Shashar.

The idea of creating artificial reefs in the Red Sea was first mooted some years ago, but it took time for the project to find its feet.

Work on building the reef began in December last year. The Israeli company, Ocean Brick System (OBS), was founded specifically to deal with the engineering side of the project, carrying out a range of simulations.

This is the largest artificial reef ever built. The maximum height of past reefs, which are used mainly for fisheries, is 1.8 yards. As a result, there was much to organize and arrange.

Building the mould itself was problematic, as was finding the right type of concrete that would be suitable for the development of oceanic invertebrates. Then 1,000 holes had to be drilled in the rough surface so that coral can be planted and marine life can attach easily to the structure.

"The whole structure has to be extremely strong because it will last for decades and is constantly exposed to sea water," says Shashar. "We have to ensure that it won't erode, and also make sure that it will be safe. We can't have a kid being trapped in there."

The openings of the reef have bars to prevent divers and swimmers from entering into unsafe areas, and to preserve the reef.

In six months another artificial reef is to be added on the Jordanian side of the Red Sea, it will be followed by four more - one in Eilat and three more in Jordan.

Improvements and modifications are planned for the next reefs. "We are trying to improve all the time," says Shashar.

Since the reef was put in, diver interest has been high. Shashar says that about 100 divers have been visiting the reef daily, almost double the number of divers who visit nearby natural reefs.

"People like to dive here, especially novice divers, because they feel more comfortable in an artificial environment," says Shashar, a world-renowned expert in the field of polarized sight, who discovered that polarized vision in locusts enables them to avoid flying over large bodies of water.

Shashar, who got his PhD at the University of Maryland and has spent most of his life studying marine life, is eager to discover how many divers visit the site.

"We need to know from an economic point of view how attractive a reef like this is, and whether it will be more appealing when we add the coral," he explains.

The reason for this is that interest in the artificial reef has already been expressed from various countries around the world.

For some it's a question of necessity. In the Pacific, for instance, there are many islands that have been protected from storms for years by their coral reefs. With global warming, these coral reefs are now being damaged and destroyed leaving the islands wide open to the sea.

"They came to us two years ago looking for a way to protect their barriers and create new ones," says Shashar. "It would be easy to say build a wave barrier and put that on your natural reef, but that would have a huge impact on the environment. Instead it could be very interesting for them to add a new reef structure that could protect them and be of viable interest."

In other cases, it's a question of tourism. A hotel in Hawaii, for instance, may want to ensure a steady stream of visitors by adding an artificial reef to the sea nearby. This would be an additional attraction for tourists.

"Within a year we will estimate whether the whole thing is a success or not, and we will go on from there," says Shashar. "If all goes well then we will go to places where reefs used to be and actually build major large scale artificial reefs there. We are trying to design a new environment. All over the world reefs are being damaged and broken down, we are trying to add surface area. So far it looks like a great success. The fish are coming, and so are the people."

Article courtesy: http://www.israel21c.org

National Geographic 25 Sep 07
New Artificial Reefs "Grow" From Mideast Peace Deal
Mati Milstein in Tel Aviv, Israel for National Geographic News

In a rare example of Middle East cooperation, Israelis and Jordanians have joined together to create a string of artificial coral reefs in the Red Sea.

The international effort is meant to attract divers and snorkelers to artificial reefs to allow the area's damaged natural reefs to heal.

A high diversity of corals thrive in the Gulf of Aqaba, which lies at the northern end of the Red Sea and is bordered by both Israel and Jordan as well as Egypt and Saudia Arabia farther south.

These reefs draw tourists from around the world to the neighboring resort cities of Elat, Israel, and Al 'Aqabah, Jordan.

The tourism dollars are a boon to the region's economy, but an onslaught of snorkelers and divers have taken a damaging toll. Many of the reefs are literally dying, experts say.

Reefs on Jordan's coast, though still at risk, have so far suffered less from human pressures than those on the more heavily visited Israeli and Egyptian coast.

"There is increasing construction, industrial development, and tourism around the gulf. Elat and [Al ']Aqabah are fast-growing cities and pressure on the reefs is growing," said Fuad Al Horani of the Marine Science Station (MSS) in Al 'Aqabah.

MSS and a team from the Elat campus of Ben-Gurion University (BGU) are spearheading the reef construction.

A 1994 peace deal between Israel and Jordan mandated that the two countries work together on combating marine pollution, natural resources issues, and coastal reef protection in the gulf.

Researchers are also gathering critical data on these complex ecosystems, including coral survival rates and patterns as well as the effects of human behavior on reefs.

Reviving the Reef

Using cranes and large parachutes, the team has already sunk huge concrete structures, each weighing 4.2 tons, into water 19 to 22 feet (6 to 7 meters) deep. Before installation, corals were nursed in special tubes designed to fit in nooks and crannies drilled into the artificial reef.

In September researchers aided by university students and Israeli schoolchildren glued the tubes across the surfaces of the irregularly shaped modular building blocks. About 250 of the coral-filled tubes have already been planted on the reef, and more are in the works.

Inner areas of the new human-made reef are barred to prevent the entry of divers and encourage new coral growth and colonization by fish and other marine life.

"Usually when something bad happens to a protected marine area, you can only say, Okay, we lost a part of it," said Nadav Shashar, BGU's marine biologist and project supervisor.

"But here we are actually able to reclaim an area. This used to be a coral reef and it died. But now we can go back and build a new one."

Just two months after initial construction, more than 20 species of fish—along with invertebrates including corals, fan worms, and tunicates—have settled naturally on the reef.

Shashar anticipates the artificial structure will need between five and ten years to evolve into a viable reef ecosystem. But fish populations will likely fully colonize the project within a year.

When completed, the project will include three reefs in Jordanian waters and two in Israel.

But it is not intended to replace natural ecosystems. Instead, the new reefs provide alternate dive areas and help in the reclamation of specific reefs.

Artificial vs. Natural

There are biological differences between natural and artificial reefs. Natural reefs contain tiny ecosystems that are dependent on light and nutrients as well as sea current strengths and speeds,

Al Horani of Jordan's MSS said. Artificial reefs do not necessarily provide the physical infrastructures for these micro-ecosystems.

"We are trying to create different types of micro-ecosystems within the structures we are developing," Al Horani said. For instance, some surfaces are exposed to full sunlight, and others are more shaded.

Shashar of Israel's BGU intentionally designed the new reef in a way that does not mimic a natural reef, but rather provides an alternate habitat for rare species.

Similar Pressures

Natural reefs in the U.S.—including the Florida Keys and Hawaii—and the Bahamas are also facing dangerous pressures similar to those of the Gulf of Aqaba reefs.

Bob Leeworthy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was not involved in the Gulf of Aqaba project. He has worked on a Florida Keys artificial reef study that involved the intentional sinking of a decommissioned U.S. naval vessel.

Such projects can help save natural reefs by taking stress off them, he said. "It was a win-win situation in the sense that total use—including scuba diving, snorkeling, glass-bottom boat rides, and fishing—increased while the use of the surrounding natural reefs declined," Leeworthy said.

Advertising the artificial reef site led to a direct increase in business traffic at local scuba outfitters, he added. Anecdotal information suggests that visitor interest in the artificial site remains steady today.

Both MSS's Al Horani and BGU's Shashar said relations between the Israeli and Jordanian team members are positive.

"We have common goals," Al Horani said. "Without this kind of collaboration we can't really control the environmental factors that might negatively influence the Gulf of Aqaba."

PlanetArk 12 Oct 07
Israel Builds Red Sea Concrete Reef to Lure Divers
Story by Doron Berti

EILAT, Israel - Israeli scientists are building a giant concrete reef to lure more divers and snorkellers to the Red Sea without endangering one of the world's most diverse coral communities.

Thousands of divers and snorkellers flock to the popular Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat to marvel at the spectacular ocean life attracted by its coral reefs.

But intensive diving is damaging the reef and researchers want to protect nature without restricting tourism in a country already battling television images of bombs and bloodshed.

The solution? A contraption the size of a small house, made up of six concrete blocks weighing 4 tonnes each.

"People and coral don't really go together," Nadav Shashar, a marine ecologist at Israel's Ben Gurion University told Reuters. "What we are trying to do is give an alternative option. Go and see the artificial habitat -- if you damage it we can replace it."

Hulking blocks of concrete might not appeal to divers used to weaving between wild, multi-coloured plant life. But after just a few months in the water the reef has attracted more than 20 species of fish.

Other resorts have used shipwrecks as artificial reefs to attract divers, but Shashar said this project is one of the first to construct a purpose-built reef, using specially designed concrete and silicon to hold coral in place.

He argues the artificial reef causes less damage to the environment than a shipwreck.

At the moment the concrete blocks look stark. But Israeli and Jordanian researchers are growing rare species of coral in nurseries and hope to create a flourishing community within 2-5 years -- a feat that might take up to 100 years in the wild.

Once the coral is ready, divers "plant" it into holes drilled into the concrete blocks.

"We don't try to imitate the natural community. We actually give advantage to rare species, species that would be on the verge of extinction," said Shashar.

The project will also provide a research base for marine ecologists since some 40 different types of coral are clustered on a 10-metre strip of Red Sea coral reef compared to four or five on the same area on Australia's famed Great Barrier Reef.

The artificial reef, near Eilat's popular Coral Beach diving spot, was started as an experiment but researchers say if it proves a hit with divers and protects the reef, it could be replicated elsewhere.

"I volunteered to dive and plant the new coral," said Naom Mordach from Jerusalem after a session plugging coral into the concrete. "I really enjoyed the diving ... and I think it's important to save the sea."
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