BHUBANESWAR: A marine biologist has devised a unique method of designing as well as implementing artificial reefs that help restore marine ecosystems and enhance ocean biodiversity.
Senior professor of Botany at Delhi University Dinabandhu Sahoo in collaboration with Sanjukta Sahoo, who heads civil engineering of KIIT Polytechnic, has designed and developed the artificial reefs in special materials. After months of simulation exercises, the artificial reefs deployed in Chilika lake, for the first time in Odisha, have started showing desired results.
Materials used to construct long-lasting artificial reefs include rocks, cinder blocks, steel and concrete. The structures help enhance habitat for reef organisms, including soft and stony corals, fishes and invertebrates that live among them.
Prof Sahoo said an artificial reef is a structure made of special materials which will act as substratum (seabed) mimicking characteristics of a natural reef once it is submerged in the sea or any water body. With climate change impacting marine ecosystems leading to frequent cyclonic storms, acidification of ocean, loss of biodiversity, bleaching of corals and decreased fisheries productivity due to increasing levels of carbon dioxide, he claimed, the artificial reefs will prevent degradation and restore the marine ecosystem.
“We have already tested it in Chilika. A lot of shrimps, fishes and sea crabs have started breeding in the artificial reefs deployed in the lake six months back with the involvement of local fishermen forums,” said Prof Sahoo who had also served as vice-chancellor of FM University.
Artificial reefs generally provide hard surfaces where algae and invertebrates such as barnacles, corals, and oysters attach and spaces where different sizes of fishes can hide. The accumulation of attached marine life in turn provides intricate structures and food for assemblages of fish.
“The reef with specific design and materials is also a good substrate for the seaweeds and some specific types of aquatic plants that can sequester carbon dioxide from water in a faster way,” said Sanjukta. The team has designed and submerged an Indian seaweed wheel of 24 feet diameter with 24 spokes which resembles Ashok Chakra.