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  • Narrator: For years, people have dumped all kinds

  • of waste into the ocean.

  • Even Coast Guard ships like this.

  • The idea is that new coral will latch on

  • to these massive objects and attract fish.

  • But just because it sinks doesn't mean it will help.

  • In fact, some of these damaged preexisting coral.

  • Now a company has said their artificial reef

  • is safe for all marine life.

  • The secret ingredient?

  • It's made from the remains of the dead.

  • There are thousands of memorial reef balls

  • like this one off the Eastern Seaboard.

  • They've become successful habitats

  • and protect hundreds of millions of dollars

  • of real estate from storm surge flooding.

  • But with natural reefs dying off at an alarming rate,

  • can these underwater graveyards actually make a difference?

  • The two most important factors for a good reef

  • are the materials you use

  • and making sure it stays put.

  • Larry Beggs and his team at Reef Innovations

  • designed this bottom-heavy reef ball

  • to withstand violent sea currents.

  • They can weigh up to 5 tons.

  • The chemicals in conventional concrete

  • can harm sea creatures.

  • So Reef Innovations has to use a special mix.

  • Larry Beggs: The concrete is a pH-neutralized, marine-grade concrete

  • that is very important for coral growth.

  • Oysters, corals, invertebrates, and stuff that will grow

  • on the reef can attach to the reef ball very easily.

  • Narrator: The company uses fiberglass panels

  • to form the basic shape of the ball.

  • They insert an inflated buoy to keep the center hollow,

  • creating the holes that fish like to swim through.

  • Once the concrete dries, the team rinses the balls

  • with a mixture of sugar and water

  • to expose the surfaces where sea life will grow.

  • This is where the dead people come in.

  • A company called Eternal Reefs

  • uses Larry's creations for their memorials.

  • They've dropped

  • almost 2,500 of them

  • over the past 20 years.

  • We work with families who have lost somebody

  • and had their loved one cremated.

  • They will come to one of our project sites.

  • Narrator: The families mix cremated remains

  • with concrete to make a separate centerpiece

  • for the reef ball.

  • They call it a pearl.

  • George Frankel: What you're going to do is you can put your hand down,

  • you rock it back and forth.

  • We put fresh concrete on the top of the reef ball,

  • and then they put handprints, they write messages.

  • Families are invited to bring things

  • that represent their loved one's life,

  • as long as they're not environmentally harmful.

  • The remains replace some of the sand

  • normally used in concrete.

  • Phyllis Flowers: They give you actually the buckets and the mix,

  • and then you pour your remains into that mix.

  • And you stir it.

  • Narrator: Phyllis Flowers lost her son to brain cancer

  • when he was just 20 years old.

  • Phyllis: So there's my son.

  • I had no idea what the Eternal Reef was until John found it.

  • In a small way, he was giving back to the world, in his mind,

  • by being able to add to the ecology of the coral reef

  • that will save, of course, our seashores

  • and build back sea animals and fish.

  • Narrator: Families take their finished reef balls

  • out to the open water,

  • say a few words, maybe a prayer,

  • and drop the memorial down to the seabed.

  • The whole process costs about the same

  • as a conventional cemetery burial.

  • On Florida's Atlantic coast,

  • another company is in the underwater burial business.

  • The Neptune Memorial Reef is the final resting place

  • for over 1,000 people.

  • Here, the human remains are mixed into statues

  • shaped like starfish or stingrays.

  • It's also a tourist attraction.

  • We estimate there's probably

  • over 2,000 divers a month that visit the Neptune Reef.

  • Narrator: Over the past century,

  • people hoped to create scenic dive sites in other places.

  • They've dropped passenger airplanes, car tires,

  • even old battleships.

  • Elizabeth Mcleod: It was really companies looking for cheaper ways

  • of disposing products that they weren't using anymore,

  • or the military had ships or tanks.

  • And I think over time, there's increased recognition

  • that these were not good for the environment.

  • Narrator: In the early 1970s, a nonprofit working

  • with the Army Corps of Engineers dumped 2 million tires

  • off the coast of Fort Lauderdale.

  • The group optimistically called it the Osborne Reef.

  • But the coral never grew.

  • Seawater corroded the tires,

  • as well as the steel clips

  • and nylon bonds holding them together.

  • They broke apart, wiping out nearby natural reefs.

  • Decades later, Florida began a cleanup

  • expected to end by 2028.

  • Some 600,000 tires are still down there.

  • Healthy reefs provide a home for a quarter

  • of all marine life, protect thousands of people

  • from hurricane damage, and contribute

  • over $4 billion to Florida's economy every year.

  • But even the best designed artificial reefs

  • can't keep up with climate change.

  • Unless carbon emissions are reduced,

  • all coral reefs could be gone by 2050.

  • Elizabeth: It's going to take all of us, and now is the time.

  • This is our decade.

  • Narrator: For now, reef burials haven't

  • reached the mainstream.

  • Even if every one of the 3.4 million Americans

  • who died last year ended up in their own reef ball,

  • it would still only replace about 1 square mile

  • of Florida's shrinking reefs.

  • If we did that around the world,

  • it probably would help,

  • but we just, we aren't, you know.

  • So I feel good about what we're doing.

  • Narrator: Perhaps this kind of memorial is just a person's

  • final act of hope that things can get better.

  • Jim: Now's the time where we need a healthy ocean

  • more than ever.

Narrator: For years, people have dumped all kinds

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用人类遗骸制成的珊瑚礁如何恢复佛罗里达海岸线(How Reefs Made With Human Remains Restore Florida Coast Line | World Wide Waste)

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    joey joey 發佈於 2021 年 07 月 01 日
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