The Gibraltar Artificial Reef, or simply the Gibraltar Reef, is the ongoing

artificial reef An artificial reef is a human-created underwater structure, typically built to promote marine life in areas with a generally featureless bottom, to control erosion, block ship passage, block the use of trawling nets, or improve surfing. Many ...

project for the Mediterranean waters surrounding the British overseas territory of

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

. The initiative was started in 1973 by Dr. Eric Shaw of the Helping Hand Trust. There are more than 40 dive sites to visit in Gibraltar. Biodiversity is claimed to be high on both natural and artificial reefs. It consists of a collection of sunken wrecks designed to give marine wildlife an environment to breed and colonise. The reef project has been the centre of political disagreements between Spain and the UK government.

History

Initially experiments were tried with

tyres A tire (American English) or tyre (British English) is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to provide traction on the surface over which t ...

chained together but sand movement and currents proved to be too strong and washed the tyres away or buried them. Benthic stones were used but they also suffered from

tidal force The tidal force is a gravitational effect that stretches a body along the line towards the center of mass of another body due to a gradient (difference in strength) in gravitational field from the other body; it is responsible for diverse phenomen ...

and proved too expensive. This was followed by sinking of

cars A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, people in ...

and monitoring the effects of sealife upon them, including a

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...

that was towed out behind a

boat A boat is a watercraft of a large range of types and sizes, but generally smaller than a ship, which is distinguished by its larger size, shape, cargo or passenger capacity, or its ability to carry boats. Small boats are typically found on inl ...

prior to being sunk, driven by diver and instructor Steven Hensaw. Finally boats and

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...

s were to be donated by the

Gibraltar Port Authority The Gibraltar Port Authority develops and manages the Port of Gibraltar. History On 19 February 1706, Anne, Queen of Great Britain granted Free Port status to Gibraltar. In the early 18th century, Gibraltar was principally a garrison where ...

and local marinas. These boats were thoroughly cleaned and emptied of all

pollutant A pollutant or novel entity is a substance or energy introduced into the environment that has undesired effects, or adversely affects the usefulness of a resource. These can be both naturally forming (i.e. minerals or extracted compounds like o ...

s prior to sinking and every location mapped. The first boats were two barges donated by '' Gibunco'' in 1974 and sunk in Camp Bay. In 2006 the 65 ton wooden boat "True Joy" also known as “Noah’s Ark”, was sunk here. The last major addition was the remains of the '' MV New Flame'', a mid-sized bulk carrier that foundered off

Europa Point Europa Point (Spanish and Llanito: Punta de Europa or Punta Europa), is the southernmost point of Gibraltar (the southernmost point of the Iberian Peninsula being Punta de Tarifa 25 km southwest of Gibraltar). At the end of the Rock of Gibral ...

in 2007. In 2013 a new type of reef was created by sinking of concrete blocks, with metal spikes attached. This caused a diplomatic row, as Spain claimed that these blocks were ripping fishing nets used for

trawling Trawling is a method of fishing that involves pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats. The net used for trawling is called a trawl. This principle requires netting bags which are towed through water to catch different spec ...

and began discussions of whether to place a tax on visitors into Gibraltar from Spain, and close Spain's airspace for flights inbound to Gibraltar.BBC News - David Cameron 'seriously concerned' by Gibraltar events
/ref> Greenpeace commented that; “such reefs are a very common practice. This is a diplomatic conflict over maritime sovereignty and not an environmental one.” Spain regularly “deployed hundreds of oncrete blocksto protect its waters” from

fishing trawler A fishing trawler is a commercial fishing vessel designed to operate fishing trawls. Trawling is a method of fishing that involves actively dragging or pulling a trawl through the water behind one or more trawlers. Trawls are fishing nets th ...

Diving

Gibraltar's

reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic processes— deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock o ...

has attracted a large variety of marine life, becoming a major attraction for both local and Spanish recreational

divers Diver or divers may refer to: *Diving (sport), the sport of performing acrobatics while jumping or falling into water *Practitioner of underwater diving, including: **scuba diving, **freediving, **surface-supplied diving, **saturation diving, a ...

References

External links

a brief history of the A.R.
{{Recreational dive sites, reesit Artificial reefs Environment of Gibraltar Shipwrecks of Gibraltar

History

Diving

See also

References

Further reading

External links