The Osborne Reef
Jan 12, 2022
In the 1960s and 70s, over 2 million used tires were dumped in the Atlantic Ocean in an attempt to create the longest artificial reef in the world. The tires were meant to provide a reef-like habitat to combat major coral reef loss off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, FL.
Although the reef was meant to have positive environmental effects, the opposite happened. The problem with the Osborne Reef is that over time, the saltwater corroded the restraints the bound the tires together in the reef formation. The tires now float around at the bottom of the ocean, becoming projectiles and destroying any coral structure or reefs in their path.
The clean-up process for the Osborne reef has been slow. Recovering the tires is a time-consuming and expensive project. Despite the progress made, approximately 2/3 of the tires remain.
https://www.4ocean.com/pages/osborne-reef
Here's a 4Ocean page with plenty of videos and articles with much more information on their clean-up process, the Osborne Reef history, and a more elaborate explanation of the problem.
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