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aquaculture began in 17th-century Japan. The earliest
recorded artificial reef in the United States is from
the 1830s, when hut logs were used off the coast of
South Carolina to improve fishing.
In modern times, man-made reefs may serve many
functions: to promote marine life in species-poor
areas, to prevent coastal erosion, to prevent the use
of trawling nets, and create improved conditions for
recreational surfing.
Many reefs are created from objects that were
built for other purposes, such as oil drilling rigs,
construction elements, refrigerators, shopping carts,
ditched vehicles, rubber tyres and railway cars.
Increasingly, retired vessels are used throughout
the world to create wreck dive sites, and
decommissioned warships are proving particularly
popular in this regard for their unique history and
military architecture.THE RIGHT SPOT
Deliberate wrecks sites in Australia are not chosen
at random, but are selected after a thorough
assessment under planning and environmental laws,
both State and Federal.
Selecting a site for scuttling a vessel to create
an artificial reef involves consideration of a widerange of factors. Bathymetrically, an appropriate
site will have a bare sandy bottom, largely devoid of
marine life and without extreme conditions such as
strong rips or currents.
The seabed should be of sufficient depth (two to
five metres) and composition to enable the scuttled
vessel to penetrate and remain stable and upright.
Environmentally, the vessel must not threaten
existing habitats or marine species that inhabit the
local area, or interrupt migration routes.
It must also have the ability to attract marine life
to colonise the reef and increase local biodiversity.
The site has to also meet navigational safety