Green Success Stories shines the Green Spotlight of Shelby Thomas of Ocean Rescue Alliance International. With their Artistic Artificial Reef Project, ORAI creates artistic artificial reefs to provide coastal protection, enhance biodiversity, and support local communities with ecotourism.
Tell us a bit about the product or solution you offer.
The Ocean Rescue Alliance International’s (ORAI’s) Artistic Artificial Reef Project is a multipronged solution to the pressures facing reef systems; a solution that also benefits municipalities, local organizations, and citizens. The reef modules create a base to outplant corals that have been grown in labs or transplanted from areas with harsh conditions to aid in restoration practices. The bases also mimic natural reef geology to create micro and macro habitat in new locations which provides shelter to marine species and supports biodiversity. The structures have been shown to mitigate up to 75% of wave energy, making them an excellent option for coastal protection and retaining sediment. Finally, the artistic focal points of ORAI’s artificial reefs connect communities to the ocean by storytelling for the local community and creating free, accessible, eco-art parks beneath the waves, which also serve as an eco-tourism attraction to help support the local community.
Share a green success story with us – how have you helped customers or other businesses in the fight against climate change?
The City of Hollywood Florida has become the first city to invest in artistic artificial reefs as a holistic, multipronged solution to coastal protection, habitat creation, coral restoration, and community engagement. In partnership with the City of Hollywood, Florida, ORAI has already put out 25 reef modules off the coast of Hollywood with five of those modules being a combination of art and habitat and the other 20 being solely habitat-focused. Each module is already providing shelter for hundreds of fish and other marine species with benthic recruitment happening before the corals have even been placed onto the structures. Due to the success of this site, the City of Hollywood will be partnering with ORAI to deploy four more reef sites in the summer of 2024. These sites will be nearshore, snorkel sites which will drastically increase public accessibility, as anyone will be able to swim or paddle out to the reefs to spend a day exploring them.
What would you do with $1 billion dollars?
We would run hundreds of miles of artistic artificial reefs down the coastlines of South Florida, Mexico, and small island nations throughout the Caribbean and even the Pacific. We would work with corals, oysters, scallops, sponges, and mangroves to increase coastal protection and habitat creation while also addressing issues such as water quality. We would operate hands-on coral nurseries and educational centers that would help connect people directly to restoration practices. We would connect with historically marginalized groups to get youth into STEM education programs focused on marine biology and environmental conservation while running scuba certification classes to further expand the connection between our youth and the deep blue world just off our shores.
What do you envision your industry looking like in ten years?
Coastal protection is a big issue facing every country with a coastline. As governments recognize that beach nourishment is an expensive and harmful short-term solution to the problem, they will turn to using wave mitigation tools to protect coastal areas and retain sediment. While doing this, there is an opportunity to mix green and grey infrastructure to create coastal protection structures that serve as a base for the restoration of local species and create habitats that support biodiversity. When further combined with artistic elements to create an eco-tourism draw, local governments will increasingly shift towards these holistic, multipronged solutions over the “bandaid” approaches currently being used.
