Guidelines for Building an Artificial Reef

 

This website is designed as a manual for building effective artificial reefs used for coral conservation purposes.  The manual includes various topics that needs to be considered when building and important elements that go into the reef design. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below is a list of initial questions that any project manager will need to answer before constructing the reef, and appropriate guidelines to help answer these questions are listed in a separate link at the left. 

· Why build an artificial reef?

· What information is needed before design?

· How should the budget be planned?

· Sink a structure or build one from scratch?

· What materials to use?

· What location? Size? Height? Shape?

· How to promote coral and fish recruitment?

· What maintenance will be required?

· What are the effects of local regulations?

· Are any safety precautions needed?

· Is the reef a success?   

About the Author: Ari Halperin, BSc. in Marine Biology from the University of Miami (FL),  E-mail: emagdnim6287@yahoo.com

Supervised by: Dr. Nadav Shashar, Marine Biology and Biotechnology   program,  the Dept. of Life Sciences at Ben Gurion University, Israel. In Collaboration with Dr. Fuad Al Horani, Marinse Science Station, Aqaba, Jordan.    Supported By the US-AID, MERC program