An Investigation into the Effectiveness of Artificial Reefs and their Design
Keri Willis (supervisor) Archipelagos Institute of Marine Conservation
Anastasia Milou (Scientific director) Archipelagos Institute of Marine Conservation
IMG_2416.MOVPlease watch and enjoy!
Location
Although, I'm sitting 3000 km away in my home. Lipsi is the place where my project is taking place. More precisely, in the Marine base of Archipelagos Institute of Marine Conservation.
Artificial reefs
Five hundred years ago, local fishers in the Mediterranean, anchored fishing nets in the rocks, after the fishing season, they left the anchors behind. Over time, these anchors created new habitats for fish to settle. These fishermen have built the first Artificial reefs in the Mediterranean (Riggio et al., 2000). We have now adopted this definition for artificial reefs:
“An artificial reef is a submerged (or partly exposed to tides) structure deliberately placed on the seabed to mimic some functions of a natural reef, such as protecting, regenerating, concentrating, or enhancing populations of living marine resources. It includes the protection and regeneration of habitats. It will serve as a habitat that functions as part of the natural ecosystem while doing “no harm” (Fabi et al., 2015).
Artificial reefs have three purposes: to help recover, or boost natural reefs, to increase productivity, and to manage aquatic resources. Depending on their aim, these unnatural structures can look different because of different designs.
You can find my project proposal, Mini literature review and the scientific poster I made for Archipelagos in the buttons below.
PROJECT PROPOSAL_FINAL.pdfMini Literature Review_Recent edit_Keri_Laura.pdfScientific poster_afterKeriedits_2.pdfFabi, G., Scarcella, G., & Spagnolo, A. (2015). Practical Guidelines for Artificial Reefs in the Mediterranean and Black Sea. FAO General Fisheries Commission for the Maditerranean, 62.
Riggio, S., Badalamenti, F., & D’Anna, G. (2000). Artificial Reefs in Sicily: An Overview. In Artificial Reefs in European Seas (pp. 65–73). Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4215-1_4
In the figure above, you see the bricks that are used in my designs. Below, you see natural rocks with metal wire. They are also planned to be used.
Vroulia Bay is indicated on the map. Here my reefs will be placed in the water.
In the figure above, you see one of my designs build on land by Keri (picture also taken by her).
The figure on the left is a bird's eye view Vroulia bay.
My journey
IMG_2475.MOVDesigns
In this section, I'm going to show to you, the reefs I have designed and give you more information about it.
2020-06-18 19-19-19_Trim.mp4The first three designs.
2020-06-20 16-17-39_Trim.mp4Fourth design.
The reason why I choose Tinkercad to work with is that it is uncomplicated and user friendly. When you log in on the webpage, you can follow small courses in which they explain how the program works. It is a program you can learn in one day. Also, it is an open-source program, and therefore I did not have to pay for anything. There are probably more sophisticated and better programs for designing Artificial reefs. However, these often take longer to learn how to work with it. A small disadvantage of Tinkercad is that you always have to be connected to the internet. No wifi, no Tinkercad.
Posters
Please first watch video before going down!
EN_long(high res).mp4
During my internship, I had a lot of communication with my mentor Keri Willis and not really with anybody else in the Archipelagos team. So, when Keri told me, the director of the institute, Anastasia, wanted to talk with me, I was so nervous. Anastasia told me more about Vroulia bay and what the purpose was of my project.
The reefs will have different purposes as Vroulia bay has many functions on its own. The Bay will serve as a dolphin and seal (and turtles) rehabilitation area and as an area where captive dolphins from zoos etc., can be released
It took six years to select the site as it had to meet multiple criteria, such as depth, gradient, currents, and ownership of land. The area needed to be remote as it needed to avoid overpopulation or touristic attractions.
The plan with the reefs is to add a 24-hour camera showing real-time footage, the area where we can carry out our curiosity and experiments, gaining more knowledge. Later date will carry out selective enrichment of certain species, some to feed the captive animals, help local organic aquaculture.
Afterward, I was touched by what Anastasia had told. She is highly motivated and dedicated to her big project. It is the reason I wanted to help them, and I came up with the idea of creating awareness posters about dolphin captivity.
My experience
IMG_2435.MOVListen here to my experience of the internship!
Thank you!
I hope you enjoyed my journey and learned more about artificial reefs!
If you have any questions, please send me a message!
Picture taken by Mafalda Isidro at Bredene beach, Belgium.
