Artificial reef creates fine home for kelp

I’m responding to an Aug. 10 article discussing results from a

survey of city planners’ opinions of the California Coastal

Commission (“Survey reveals mixed opinion of commission”). The

article closed with a negative quote describing work of the Marine

Forests Society as a “garbage dump.” Presumably the quotation

included and referred to the society’s artificial reef constructed

from used automobile tires.

Waste materials have also been employed by other groups for

constructing artificial reefs. Waste materials, for example, have

been used by the California Department of Fish and Game in some of

the artificial reefs they have deployed along our shores. A critical

aspect in such usage is whether the materials are likely to

contribute significant toxicity to their nearby surroundings.

Toxicity assessment can be a difficult task in the ebb and flow

environments along most shallow ocean floors. The ultimate proof of

the pudding is whether marine organisms closely and successfully

associate with such structures.

I have not directly seen the tire reef deployed by the society

because I gave up scuba diving in the mid-1990s. I have, however,

examined many photographs of the aggregate. The Marine Forests

Society requested my assistance in identifying genera and species of

organisms closely associated with their reef. The reef clearly now

supports a diverse group of plants and animals commonly found on

nearby natural reefs. The tires appear to be stable, and the overall

structure has persisted for several years. Is it really a dump? Tough

question. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If I were a kelp

spore, my answer would be something like: “This is it, there’s no

place like home.”

WHEELER J. NORTH

Costa Mesa

* EDITOR’S NOTE: Wheeler J. North is a Caltech emeritus professor

of environmental science whose contributions to kelp research led to

the dubbing of an aquaculture test site near Crystal Cove as

Wheeler’s Reef.