People are opting for their final wish to be their remains are included in an artificial reef. The Neptune Memorial Reef is an artificial reef located 3.25 miles off Key Biscayne in the Florida Keys. The 16-acre memorial reef is situated in 45-fee of water and features the remains of people wishing a more environmentally friendly and ocean centric burial.
Sir Richard Branson is set to sink an artificial reef in the British Virgin Islands, close to Necker Island, his well known vacation island in the BVI’s. The Kodiak Queen, one of the five ships that survived the attack on Pearl Harbor, has been prepared and outfitted with a giant Kraken sculpture to be sunk to become the B.V.I. Art Reef. The artificial reef will be sunk just south of Mountain Point in Virgin Gorda.
Scientists and conservationists are beginning to utilize 3-D printers to help save the ocean’s coral reefs. Artificial reefs have been composed of everything from used tires, to retired ships to manufactured concrete structures, but up until now none have exactly replicated the structures of coral exoskeletons. Scientists believe that 3-D reefs may be less vulnerable to climate change than natural reefs. Experiments in reef colonization is occurring now in the Mediterranean, Caribbean, Persian Gulf, and Australia.