How a sunken jet could promote biodiversity

A retired A300 airbus is getting a new mission under the Aegean Sea in hopes of reviving a coral reef – and tourism, after a series of terrorist attacks in Istanbul. 

|
David Bellwood/ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies/AP
A coral reef in Australia showing telltale signs of bleaching, one of the plights of coral today. The artificial reef is one solution to the decrease of the world's coral.

Hundreds of on-lookers gathered to watch as divers and cranes carefully handled an 177-foot long A300 airbus jet submerged in the Aegean Sea on Saturday. But the crew was not pulling the jet out of the water. Rather they were charged with lowering the plane 75 feet down onto the seafloor, in the hopes of making it an oceanic oasis to draw fish, sea plants, and scuba divers.

The airbus-cum-reef was planted off the coast of the Turkish town Kuşadası, where local officials are hoping to increase scuba diving–related tourism. Diving activities are already a part of the resort and port-of-call town's tourism roster, which also includes a marina, a seaside promenade, and proximity to Byzantine ruins. 

"Our goal is to make Kuşadası a center of diving tourism," Özlem Çerçioğlu, mayor of the Aydin province where Kuşadası is located, told reporters. "Our goal is to protect the underwater life. And with these goals in mind, we have witnessed one of the biggest wrecks in the world."

Her administration purchased the plane for about $93,000. 

The use of man-made materials to create artificial reefs, where aquatic life can form and congregate, is a tactic that has been used throughout the world. These reefs are often constructed to replace ecosystems that are struggling in the face of vanishing coral reefs, or to bolster human pursuits like sport fishing and scuba diving.

Artificial reef technology has been around long enough to have its learning curves. One early experiment, for example, the 1972 Osbourne Tire Reef off the coast of Florida, infamously ended with tires breaking loose and lodging into natural coral reefs nearby, inhibiting their growth.

Now the concept has been implemented throughout the world, from Florida to Australia. California has a robust chain of artificial reefs up and down the coast, using quarry rock, cars, a streetcar, ships, and barges, to name a few materials. Turkey has reportedly already dropped several planes in the Aegean Sea, for the purpose of stimulating an ecosystem and improving biodiversity, thus upping scuba diving appeal.

Natural coral reefs have been in decline in recent years, due both to long terms trends and shorter-term weather patterns. Established ecosystems are negatively impacted by the loss of coral, a phenomenon that has been seen in Mediterranean-area waters, in addition to more well-known cases like Australia's Great Barrier Reef. According to the World Wildlife Foundation, 25 percent of the world's coral reefs are damaged beyond repair, while an additional two-thirds are seriously threatened. 

And while artificial reef projects across the world have seen success in creating flourishing underwater zones teeming with life, the recreational activities that they are sometimes constructed to support are the same factors that the World Wildlife Fund points to as diminishing natural reefs: namely, tourism and certain fishing practices. 

In Turkey, however, officials are looking forward to the economic boost that they hope for, amidst a tourism industry struggling to survive safety concerns after a series of terrorist bombings in Istanbul last year. Ms. Çerçioğlu told Turkey's Daily Sabah that she expects about 250,000 diving tourists per year to visit the new reef, along with an increase in underwater biodiversity. 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to How a sunken jet could promote biodiversity
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2016/0607/How-a-sunken-jet-could-promote-biodiversity
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe