Osborne Reef - Tires for Reef

[johndiver999]

interesting report. They collected 7500 tires last year. Wonder what the annual cost is? I bet the per tire cost is unbelievable.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

Over the years many attempts have been made to clean up the mess. Nobody wants the tires. What do you do with them after they are raised? It costs big money to send a barge out to collect tires, divers can only make so many dives per day.
Recently the Navy was using the area as a training site, and the navy divers were picking them up.

I've never actually been on the site, but find tires all over Ft. Lauderdale, north, south, west of the site.

 

[OTF]

I don't know the backstory here so I'm asking this honestly - were "scientists" really entirely to blame here or could this headline equally have pinned it to "local politicians" or "tire industry" or "fishing artificial reef organiztion" or any of the other stakeholders doubtlessly involved in a project like this?

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

From the article:

A local Florida non-profit by the name of Osborne Reef decided to drop two million tires into the water off the Florida coast in the 1970s. The intentions were good, but the foresight was clearly off.​

​

At the time, there was plenty of buzz surrounding the project. Even the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers got on board with the project, which was under the supervision of the Navy. Most of the tires were provided by manufacturing giant Goodyear, and the project received a spiritual christening with the first tire, plated with gold, dropped in by the Goodyear Blimp.​

 

[Johnoly]

The intentions were good, but the foresight was clearly off.

​

They were. Back in the 70's there was not as many requirements for 'testing 1st " as we have now. A similar thing happened with FPL when they sank concrete light poles. They found that 'growth inhibitors" mixed into the concrete to keep the street poles self-clean & pretty on the streets would also turn out to be self-clean underwater on artificial reefs so they don't sink those anymore.

But large concrete pipes (culverts) that were buried underground & removed didn't have those additives mixed in. When sank to make up reefs like the ones on reefs in Jupiter, those are now very quickly promoting fuzz and coral growth on them in less than a year's time. Those programs were "pre-tested' with small item placements of just a couple of pieces and then monitored and reported on. New reef projects using that type of concrete makeup are now quickly approved and placed under sinking permits. I think the shallow WPB 'Toy Box" dive site was one of the first success stories with them and it's a cool place to dive.

 

[tridacna]

It's much worse than Osborne.

Tires: The plastic polluter you never thought about

Because tires are made of natural rubber and plastic, it’s easy to miss just how much they contribute to pollution in our oceans.

www.nationalgeographic.com

 

[L13]

Was there scientific opposition to this at the time?

Probably, scientific consensus has been censoring scientific truth for thousands of years, and it isn't getting any better. Anyone who "believes" in scientific consensus is doing science wrong.

 

[tridacna]

Probably, scientific consensus has been censoring scientific truth for thousands of years, and it isn't getting any better. Anyone who "believes" in scientific consensus is doing science wrong.

We’re entering into philosophy of science now. A wee bit advanced for this thread. Let’s leave that for Karl Popper’s fans.

I remember being under the impression at that time that used tires were inert rubber and should not be burned. Was there actual science warning against their use in the ocean?

I’m reacting to the supposition that this entire venture somehow bucked scientific thinking at the time.

 

[broncobowsher]

Hindsight is 20/20.

50 years ago, things were a lot different. Chemicals in tires? No, they are just rubber. It's natural stuff from trees.

At this point the tires didn't grow coral reefs. But are they actually doing much bad to the area? How much pollution will be generated during the removal? What will be done with the tires once removed? Bury them somewhere else? The most common method I know of to get rid of tires is to burn them for fuel in cement making.

 

[tarponchik]

And what was the science behind using tyres, which are full of rather questionable chemicals?

It's not what's inside, it's the surface that matters. No marine organisms can attach to rubber.

After reading stories about Love Canal and fire management in Yosemite, I am not surprised at all that people do dumb (and even dumber) things. What still puzzles me is why people do not explore their own success. It seems to me that Dania erojacks are quite successful as an artificial reef, so why not build more like that?