Temple Reef is an
artificial reef
An artificial reef (AR) is a human-created freshwater or marine benthic structure.
Typically built in areas with a generally featureless bottom to promote Marine biology#Reefs, marine life, it may be intended to control #Erosion prevention, erosio ...
off the coast of
Pondicherry, India. It was constructed of fully recycled materials such as
concrete blocks,
rocks
In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks form the Earth's ...
,
tree
In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...
s,
palm leaves
The Arecaceae () is a family of perennial, flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are colloquially c ...
, and
iron bars by th
Temple Adventuresteam starting from October 2013
Temple Reef Foundationcurrently maintains and monitors the reef.
Etymology
The reef was named both after its creator, Temple Adventures, and the shape of the site on the ocean floor. The current dive site is now divided into four different sites:
1) Original Temple Reef
2) Parking Lot
3) Beer Garden
4) Temple 2 aka Wreck City
Location
It is located below the surface, 5 km west, off the
Coromandel coast
The Coromandel Coast is a coastal region along the southeastern front of the Indian peninsula. Its delimitations are numerous, but generally admitted to be bounded by the Krishna River, Krishna river River mouth, mouth to the north, the Bay of B ...
of
Pondicherry
Pondicherry, officially known as Puducherry, is the Capital city, capital and most populous city of the Puducherry (union territory), Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the southeast coast of Indi ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
in the
Bay of Bengal
The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. Geographically it is positioned between the Indian subcontinent and the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese peninsula, located below the Bengal region.
Many South Asian and Southe ...
.
Biodiversity
Within a short span of time, the reef became home to a diverse
aquatic life
An aquatic ecosystem is an ecosystem found in and around a body of water, in contrast to land-based terrestrial ecosystems. Aquatic ecosystems contain communities of organisms—aquatic life—that are dependent on each other and on their environm ...
. There is a vast range of
corals
Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...
and
fishes
A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fins and a hard skull, but lacking limbs with digits. Fish can be grouped into the more basal jawless fish and the more common jawed ...
like
grouper
Groupers are a diverse group of marine ray-finned fish in the family Epinephelidae, in the order Perciformes.
Groupers were long considered a subfamily of the seabasses in Serranidae, but are now treated as distinct. Not all members of this f ...
s,
lion fish,
kingfish,
eagle
Eagle is the common name for the golden eagle, bald eagle, and other birds of prey in the family of the Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of Genus, genera, some of which are closely related. True eagles comprise the genus ''Aquila ( ...
and
manta rays
Manta rays are large Batoidea, rays belonging to the genus ''Mobula'' (formerly its own genus ''Manta''). The larger species, ''Giant oceanic manta ray, M. birostris'', reaches in width, while the smaller, ''Reef manta ray, M. alfredi'', reac ...
,
moray eels
Moray eels, or Muraenidae (), are a family of eels whose members are found worldwide. There are approximately 200 species in 15 genera which are almost exclusively marine, but several species are regularly seen in brackish water, an ...
,
sea snakes
Sea snakes, or coral reef snakes, are elapid snakes that inhabit marine environments for most or all of their lives. They belong to two subfamilies, Hydrophiinae and Laticaudinae. Hydrophiinae also includes Australasian terrestrial snakes, w ...
,
triggerfish
Triggerfish are about 40 species of often brightly colored marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Balistidae. Often marked by lines and spots, they inhabit tropical and subtropical oceans throughout the world, with the greatest speci ...
,
parrot fish
Parrotfish (named for their mouths, which resemble a parrot's beak) are a clade of fish placed in the tribe Scarini of the wrasse family (Labridae). Traditionally treated as their own family (Scaridae), genetic studies have found them to be dee ...
,
angelfish,
bannerfish,
butterflyfish
The butterflyfish are a group of conspicuous tropical ocean, marine fish of the family Chaetodontidae; the bannerfish and coralfish are also included in this group. The approximately 129 species in 12 genera are found mostly on the reefs of the ...
and
crustaceans
Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of Arthropod, arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquat ...
.
Overall there has been 75 + different species recorded in this site. Some other marine life are: Malabar Grouper, Red Snapper, Blue line Grouper, Coral Banded Shrimp, Dancing Durban Shrimp, Spearing Mantis Shrimp, Humphead Batfish, Roundface Batfish, Zebra Batfish, Chevron Barracuda, Yellowtail Barracuda, Yellow Boxfish, Blue Spot Toby, Titan Triggerfish, Indian Vagabond Butterfly fish, Harlequin Sweetlips, Longfin Bannerfish, Blue tang surgeonfish Bronzelined Rabbitfish, Eyestripe Surgeonfish, Gold-lined spinefoot, Cleaner wrasse, Three spot Dascyllus, Blue ring angel fish, Yellowtail Chromis, Sargent fish, Copper Sweepers, Ring tailed Cardinalfish, Brown Lionfish, Chinese Trumpetfish, Salmacis Belli, Honeycomb Moray Eel, Moray Eels, Garden Eels, Porcupine Puffer fish, Blackspotted pufferfish, Peacock sole, Yellowspot Goatfish, Jackfish, Mackerels, Valenciennea Goby, Amblyeleotris Goby, Yellow Prawn Goby, Red Lionfish, Clearfin Lionfish, Pterois mombasae Lionfish.
See also
*
Artificial reef
An artificial reef (AR) is a human-created freshwater or marine benthic structure.
Typically built in areas with a generally featureless bottom to promote Marine biology#Reefs, marine life, it may be intended to control #Erosion prevention, erosio ...
*
Redbird Reef
*
Osborne Reef
*
Biorock
*
Marine debris
Marine debris, also known as marine litter, is human-created solid material that has deliberately or accidentally been released in seas or the ocean. Floating oceanic debris tends to accumulate at the center of gyres and on coastlines, freque ...
*
Multi-purpose reef
A multi-purpose reef, also commonly known as an artificial surfing reef or surf reef, is a structure located offshore designed to induce wave breaking in a manner that creates a wave suitable for surfing or body boarding. Artificial surfing reefs ...
References
External links
Temple Adventures
{{coord missing, Indian Ocean
Artificial reefs
Reefs of the Indian Ocean
Ecosystems
Buildings and structures completed in 2013
2013 establishments in Puducherry