![]() ![]() “To help with funding, we came up with the idea of Solace Reefs,” Darler says. Two local divers, Marcus Darler and Sean Webb, gained permission from the Crown Estate ( the monarchy owns the UK seabed) to obtain a square-kilometre site off the coast of Weymouth and Portland for a reef to help regenerate the local lobster population, as well as act as a dive site. The idea has also been adopted in Dorset, as part of a scheme to attract divers to the county. When complete, it will comprise 250,000 memorials covering more than 6.5 hectares (16 acres), making it one of the world’s largest human-made reefs. Hutslar says the artificial reef is home to 56 species of fish, as well as crabs, sea urchins, sponges and coral. “Building a reef costs money – lots of it,” says Jim Hutslar, its operations director. It is not the only such project in the ocean: the company behind the Neptune Memorial Reef, in Florida, says it “creates life after life” in the ocean and also provides memorials made of concrete and cremated remains, which cost from $1,295, to generate funding. Incorporating human ashes into artificial reefs could protect them, as well as highlighting the damage done to the ocean, says a marine biologist. “And we’re using memorialisation as the tool.” what our goal is,” says George Frankel, chief executive of Eternal Reefs. “We consider ourselves to be reef-builders. “Any impact disappears within days,” he says.Įternal Reefs says the money people such as Hock pay for reef balls – which cost between $3,000 and $7,500 (£2,200-£5,500) – helps fund more artificial reefs. Collins, whose specialism is artificial reefs, sees no problem with marine concrete and is involved in a UK memorial reef himself. “It is a designated bit of seabed which remains undisturbed,” he says. “When you have artificial reefs that contain human remains, imagine the consternation there would be if that area was trawled up,” he says.ĭr Ken Collins, of Southampton University’s National Oceanography Centre, agrees. Roberts says incorporating human ashes into artificial reefs could help shield them from destruction, as well as highlighting the damage we do to the ocean. “Corals and all sorts of animals grow better on structure,” he says. Murray Roberts, professor of marine biology at Edinburgh University’s school of geosciences, thinks it is a good idea. There was a real diversity of invertebrates covering the stones Marcus Darler, Solace Reefs ![]() The organisation has so far sunk close to 3,000 memorial reefs across about 25 sites, from Texas to New Jersey. At more than a metre high and two metres wide and weighing 250kg-1,800kg (550lb-4,000lb), the balls have a rough surface that allows marine plants and animals such as corals and algae to grow on them. Reefs are essential to protect shorelines and maintain marine ecosystems, as well as providing work for local communities and even helping scientists to produce new medicines.Įternal Reefs works with the Reef Ball Foundation and Reef Innovations, which constructs the balls. Most of the world’s reefs are at risk – from ocean warming and acidification, pollution and overfishing – according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. While the reef model still requires cremation, the idea is that the structures will help restore marine habitats by mimicking some characteristics of a coral reef. Today, the idea of an ocean burial chimes with a search for eco-friendly alternatives to traditional burial and cremation. And tales of fallen Viking heroes’ boats set ablaze have persisted in popular culture. In the South Pacific, bodies would be placed in canoes and pushed out to sea, while scattering ashes in the ocean has long been widely practised in Asia. The charity says it has seen the number of requests triple during the pandemic, mostly from people who love the sea – and the notion that in death they can help regenerate marine life.Ī desire to return to the ocean goes back millennia, with evidence of sea burial in ancient Egypt and Rome. One near Florida is now home to 56 species of fish, as well as crabs, sea urchins, sponges and coral. Reef balls can attract a host of marine life to largely barren seabed. ![]()
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