Artificial Reef

we placed an artificial reef (the guys call it "reeflet")last year in my regular dive area (Balayan Bay) and the reeflet has since acquire residents.

this led the guys to do more reeflets. it is with great pleasure to anounce that Project ware has given some funding to add more of this. i will post pictures by next year on them.

we are scheduled to bring down several bigger reeflets by december and next year.

So, what kind of artificial reef is it? How big?

archman:

So, what kind of artificial reef is it? How big?

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the first one (the prototype) was a small one. it is placed on the sandy portion at 80 ft dept. This is around 15 to 20 meters away from the reefs edge.

It's conical in shape with the top tapered off. with 3/4 a meter in height and half a meter in base diameter, with 6 inches diameter of holes around (around 4 of them)

this time they made the sides of the new reeflets trapezoidal and it is assembled underwater. with the bases tied toghether. the height of the trapezoids are double the prototype. the sides of the new ones are poured over the "caskaho" (chips of corals, sand and stone as found in the beach size ranging from half and inch to several inches.) This makes the sides of the reef very much like the natural habitat, rough and with texture.

i visited the prototype three weeks ago and , hehehe, i placed sparkling wine bottles in side them with the bottle opening resting on the hole openings, the three bottles that remained inside has gobbies on them openings with lots of fish frys around. we also transplanted soft and hard coral pieces last year. now they are taking hold and growing !!! and lots of inverts clinging to it.

The weird thing during the first weeks, every time i check it out i see a wine bottle outside of the reeflet. Some creature must have been moving a bottle.

paolov:

The weird thing during the first weeks, every time i check it out i see a wine bottle outside of the reeflet. Some creature must have been moving a bottle.

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Probably a beer drinker.

Look forward to maybe (hint) seeing some pictures of one of these things. Is there an online link?

What are the structural frames constructed out of? Sounds sort of like a "Reef Ball" in size and general shape, except those are made on land and poured all at once into a set shape.

archman:

Probably a beer drinker.

Look forward to maybe (hint) seeing some pictures of one of these things. Is there an online link?

What are the structural frames constructed out of? Sounds sort of like a "Reef Ball" in size and general shape, except those are made on land and poured all at once into a set shape.

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structural frames would be welded mesh wires covered by cement with the rough "caskaho" as reef walls. The location is in sandy, generally calm waters where the current is never more than 2 knots.

Pictures maybe i'll post them pictures next year when we have situated several clumps or villages underwater , i'll also post the HUGE Ligt bag i made. my estimation the lift bag has a lift of around 250 lbs. We used this to move HUGE bamboo bundle poles.

The bamboo bundle poles were huge, as long as 120 ft in legth . we had to move this debris underwater and clump them in one place. To date the clump serves as refuge ofr alot of fishes, yellow tail barracudas, banner fishes, soldier fishes, rabbit fishes, etc.

check out the link :

http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/522/sort/1/cat/500/page/1

thats a glimps of the bamboo bundle. Those batfish you see in the picture have been caught by fishermen last summer. They have been greeting divers visiting the clump and they serve as guides . they approache divers and bring them to the main site literally. So when i bring divers ther last year, i just wait for them in poor visibility and when thye show i tell the group to follow the batfishes.

paolov:

we placed an artificial reef (the guys call it "reeflet")last year in my regular dive area (Balayan Bay) and the reeflet has since acquire residents.

this led the guys to do more reeflets. it is with great pleasure to anounce that Project ware has given some funding to add more of this. i will post pictures by next year on them.

we are scheduled to bring down several bigger reeflets by december and next year.

Click to expand...

hey pao,

there's also an artificial reef project (conserve and protect reefs project) in calatagan off the Wearns property. the project, as far as i know, is financed by the Madrigal/ Wearns family with cooperation from the local govt. and the local bantay dagat patrols

it's in about 60 feet with a good current running through it

the deal is they have a volunteer diver program where divers go and help build the reef composed of hundreds of 1.5'x1.5' concrete cubes embedded with caskoh and holes going through them... each block is about 70kg

these are set up in a pyramid starting w/ a 10x10 block base (i think)

the best part is that THEY cover all tank fills, accomods, food, booze (hehehe), boat... all you have to do is get your self there (a whopping 2+ hours from manila)

i went there in feb, we worked on pyramid #5... it was also my 1st fun dive after OW!!! and had only started the June before that... they had already great soft coral growth, an ever-growing population of fish and a resident grouper that was the head honcho on the reef... bugger was huge! (biggest fish i've seen at least)

it was a great weekend and am just waiting for another chance to go... there have been literally thousands of diver volunteers in the year+ they've been at it and have i think over 10 pyramids set up

if you're putting up a similar (even smaller) operation, please do count me in to do my part!!!

Jag

PS
contact pala for CPR is Oye Peralta... they also own OJ's in eastwood so you can find him there

shugar:

hey pao,

there's also an artificial reef project (conserve and protect reefs project) in calatagan off the Wearns property. the project, as far as i know, is financed by the Madrigal/ Wearns family with cooperation from the local govt. and the local bantay dagat patrols

it's in about 60 feet with a good current running through it

the deal is they have a volunteer diver program where divers go and help build the reef composed of hundreds of 1.5'x1.5' concrete cubes embedded with caskoh and holes going through them... each block is about 70kg

these are set up in a pyramid starting w/ a 10x10 block base (i think)

Click to expand...

yes i know of the project in calatagan. WE need to do this sort of projects all over the philippines to help revive the abused reefs.

At this point in Balayan bay, divers with Rescue Certifications are utilised due to the depth and need to use in the operation. Especially in the gathering of bamboo debris, also part of the reefing operations.

I'll keep the board posted on the developments.

Nice article on a Brazilian artificial reefs project at
http://www.lactec.org.br/meioambiente/recifesartificiais.pdf
It's a PDF with about 3.5MB.
It's in Portuguese but it's mostly pictures and graphs and those of you that are technically more interested can easily translate the small amount of text with one of the on-line translators.

miketsp:

Nice article on a Brazilian artificial reefs project at
http://www.lactec.org.br/meioambiente/recifesartificiais.pdf
It's a PDF with about 3.5MB.
It's in Portuguese but it's mostly pictures and graphs and those of you that are technically more interested can easily translate the small amount of text with one of the on-line translators.

Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing the Links, Muchas Gracias

The Cones and the Pyramid (trapezoids more as the sides are tied together upon deployment ) are very much like the artificial reefs we bring down.

IT would be great if we were able to get hold of a BArge !!!

hi everyone! am very glad to see so many divers involved in reef protection/conservation efforts. there's always room for more! always work to be done.
we really have come a long way from tying old tyres together and calling them reefs! it's great that people are making the extra effort to lay down suitable substrate for coral recruitment. i'm sure the people involved in these projects have looked into the pros and cons of artifical reefs, so i'm not gonna say anything about that.
i'd like to say a couple of things though. i'd caution against establishing artificial reefs in sandy areas. if the area is a sand flat, it is geologically that way for a reason. unless people have spoken of having reefs there before or you can see the rubble there yourself, there's probably good reason why they're not there anymore. (learned this the hard way)
also, please please be careful when transplanting corals or any organisms of any kind. if possible, take already broken fragments of corals. transplanting is a good way of jumpstarting a reef, but it's not always a success. and when it fails, it's pretty depressing... (again, from experience)
i guess the point i'm trying to make, is that a reef is complex ecosystem. and when trying to rebuild one, we should be extra cautious. we don't fully understand everything down there, and how they interrelate... when in doubt, stop and ask a marine biologist
good luck to everyone! i wish everyone success with their reefs! keep up the effort