Beer bottles - friend or foe?

[Sintax604]

I like to think of myself as a fairly conscientious diver, I try to do no harm and I pick up trash from the bottom when I see it. Generally speaking this is a nobrainer thing to do. However, when it comes to glass bottles, I'm always torn. On the one hand, they don't belong down there, however the flip side is that there's usually SOMETHING living inside it... fish, small octos, shrimp...

As far as I can tell, the bottle poses no immediate risk to marine life as it is fairly inert and won't create any entanglement issues. Many artifical reefs employ old tires and other man-made materials - can glass bottles act as mini artificial reefs which should be left alone once "colonized?"

I'm very interested to hear any facts and opinions that you may have.

Thanks!

 

[jupitermermaid]

If a bottle I come across from diving looks fairly new and no growth is on it, I'll pick it up and discard it properly. If it's been there a while and there is growth on the bottle or an inhabitant claimed it, I leave it alone. Just what I do. Others may think differently.

 

[mongodives]

Good question?
I've left a ton of trash on the bottom because a critter of one type or the other has decided that its good cover, attachment, home etc.

At what point do we call it part of the reef or ecosystem vs trash?

 

[Cave Diver]

If a bottle I come across from diving looks fairly new and no growth is on it, I'll pick it up and discard it properly. If it's been there a while and there is growth on the bottle or an inhabitant claimed it, I leave it alone. Just what I do. Others may think differently.

Same here.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Agree with not disturbing inert habitat.

Just to add to the tire reef comment; that was an old kill two birds with one stone attempt that for the most part was a disaster. Because of the slippery nature of petroleum products, coral does not attach strongly enough to stay on the tire in any surge when it gets above a certain size. Even the most intelligently thought out tire reefs, those where the tires are in cement bases to keep them where they are dropped, still look like tire dumps after over 30 years. They are good habitat but they are ugly.

Unfortunately most of the tire reefs were not that well thought out and the chains or cables holding them down and together eventually broke leaving millions of tires surging across the bottom and doing immeasurable harm. The US Government even had to foot a very big bill sending Navy divers into Florida waters to remove tons of tires that were wrecking havoc on healthy natural reefs.

Even modern artificial reef projects are not always well thought out and humans continue to do damage to natural reefs while attempting to help. Below is a picture of +30 year old concrete/tire reef and to my mind the concrete did not turn out any better than the tire as far as a foothold for coral, yet the linked story and threads show similar concrete (sans tires) that Hawaii's Natural Resources brain trust probably made numerous mistakes with. Sorry for the hijack; end rant.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/hawaii-ohana/314484-mauis-artificial-reef-expanded.html

Reef Damage Investigated - MauiWeekly.com | News, information, serving Maui, Hawaii weekly ? The Maui Weekly

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[Bubble Junky]

Even modern artificial reef projects are not always well thought out and humans continue to do damage to natural reefs while attempting to help. Below is a picture of +30 year old concrete/tire reef and to my mind the concrete did not turn out any better than the tire as far as a foothold for coral,

What material can anyone recommend for getting coral to take hold. We're trying to build atrificial reefs where I am. At the moment concentrating more on making small sheltered ares to encourage fish life, mainly using old palm leaves. We put one in the water last week, and a robust ghost pipefish 'moved in' on the third day..... But would like to hear ant suggestions for encouraging coral growth too......

 

[smellzlikefish]

I had to chime in here. I used to grab the plastic bags and fishing nets while leaving the bottles based on the same reasoning as has been presented here and figuring that they would break up over time. Then I saw the beach below on Laysan. The otherwise untouched beach that never had human inhabitants was made up of maybe 1/3 glass bottles and other crap. I still leave the bottles because they do provide some habitat, but a little food for thought.

 

[DennisS]

I was out with my ex brother in law on the chesapeake bay. He had a girl friend, biologist from the dept of environmental something or other with us. She worked with oysters. We knocked down a couple of beers and she grabbed the cans wobbled them till they split and tossed them over. We were both immediately on her case. She smiled and explained we were on a mud bottom and that the beer cans would have oyster spat growing on them in 6 months. In a year they would have small oysters on them. I never heard of tossing beer cans over to start oyster bars but what do I know.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

What material can anyone recommend for getting coral to take hold. We're trying to build atrificial reefs where I am. At the moment concentrating more on making small sheltered ares to encourage fish life, mainly using old palm leaves. We put one in the water last week, and a robust ghost pipefish 'moved in' on the third day..... But would like to hear ant suggestions for encouraging coral growth too......

Leafy organic matter is going to decay well before any coral growth. There are different grades of concrete; from that made with fine sand to that made with coarse gravel. A rough, porous surface to the concrete, due to very course aggregate as the mixer, is better than a smooth surface (sand mixer).

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Above is concrete that was either made with local beach sand or with salt water, not the Army Corp of Engineers best pier building effort. Hurricane Iniki's storm swell knocked it down 9/11/92 and the coral growth is spectacular. This location is a third the depth of the previous tire/concrete reef photo and located where North swells have significantly more impact. At only 20-30 fsw this location gets way more sunlight, but the crashing winter waves do way more damage. Still, the growth is exponentially better than the tire reef, dropped '85-'91.

 

[Teamcasa]

If a critter has made it a home, I'm not going to remove it.

I would also think a bottle that's on the bottom is not likely to cause any real issue but eventually it will end up somewhere. That said, glass is pretty inert as far as ecology goes.

File:Glass Beach Fort Bragg 3.jpg - Wikimedia Commons