Hydraulic and earth engineering – Bank – shore – or bed protection – Wave or flow dissipation
Reexamination Certificate
2001-02-23
2002-10-15
Hartmann, Gary S. (Department: 3671)
Hydraulic and earth engineering
Bank, shore, or bed protection
Wave or flow dissipation
C405S025000, C405S029000, C405S033000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06464429
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to underwater structures. More specifically, the present invention pertains to artificial reef structures. The present invention is particularly, though not exclusively, useful as an artificial, non-permanent reef structure that can be placed underwater in tropical marine environments to promote the settlement and growth of benthic invertebrates, to provide shelter and protection for schools of small reef fish, and ultimately, to promote the re-growth of damaged coral and the growth of new coral.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Coral reefs are extremely complex marine ecosystems which are home to numerous aquatic species. Coral reefs are thought by many scientists to be the most biologically diverse, species-rich and productive ecosystems on the earth. Coral reefs occupy approximately two-tenths of a percent (0.2%) of the world's ocean surfaces. However, it is estimated that coral reefs are home to nearly a million marine species, including a quarter of all fish species.
Corals are divided into two types: hard corals and soft corals. Hard corals, such as staghorn, elkhorn, and pillar corals, are stationary on the ocean floor and have rigid exoskeletons, or corallites, that protect the soft delicate bodies within their interior. Soft corals, or gorgonians, such as sea fans, sea whips, and sea rods, are also stationary on the ocean floor, but they lack an exoskeleton. The soft corals sway back and forth under the influence of the currents.
Coral reefs provide several important benefits to the world's population. These benefits include tourism, private and commercial fishing, mainland and island protection, medicines, and ecological indications. Many people travel to coral reefs to snorkel, scuba-dive, and fish. For example, many island countries in the Pacific and Indian Oceans and in the Caribbean Sea derive a substantial portion or their income from the tourism attracted by the nearby coral reefs.
As previously mentioned, numerous types of fish find shelter in coral reefs and use them for spawning, feeding and nursing. Therefore, substantial income and employment may also be derived from commercial fisheries operating near coral reefs. Moreover, in poorer countries, many of the inhabitants reside within the coastal zones of developing regions and rely directly on fish caught at the nearby coral reefs for their necessary protein.
Coral reefs provide protection from coastal damage from intense wave action, such as coastal erosion and flooding. Older reefs have facilitated the formation of lagoons and calm shorelines where seagrass beds and mangrove trees flourish to provide shelter and habitat for numerous species at the coastal/aquatic interface.
Coral reefs are also a source of many important pharmaceutical breakthroughs. It is estimated that nearly one-half (½) of the potential pharmaceuticals presently being explored are from the oceans—many of which are found near coral reefs.
Finally, because of their susceptibility to minor temperature variations, coral reefs may provide indication of ecological changes much quicker than other ecosystems. For example, coral reefs may be among the first ecosystems to show signs of ecological stress from global warming and as such, coral reefs are very important ecologic indicators.
Unfortunately, many of the earth's coral reefs are in danger of being severely injured or destroyed by human activity. Water pollution, global warming and direct physical contact from boat anchors, divers, etc., are among many of the causes of this deterioration. Moreover, the spread of non-sustainable fishing methods, such as dynamite fishing, have caused a rapid decline in the live coral cover on many of the world's coral reefs.
As a result, many large reef tracts have been reduced to little more than vast fields of coral rubble. Because of the lack of a suitable habitat, reef fish, particularly the juveniles and the small herbivorous species, will quickly abandon a demolished reef. Young hard corals struggling for a foothold on the ocean floor may be easily smothered by carpets of algae, aggressive soft corals, and shifting reef sediment. Furthermore, without the successful recruitment of hard corals or fish to the coral reef, collapse of the ecosystem rapidly ensues. Under these circumstances, many decades are required to completely re-establish a highly diverse hard coral cover and propagate normal reef fish populations.
Hard corals may reproduce sexually or asexually. Sexual reproduction of coral involves spawning, fertilization and the production of planula larvae, some of which may live in plankton for up to one hundred (100) days. Asexual reproduction may include the budding of polyps from a parent colony, polyp bailout, or fragmentation. Polyp bailout occurs when a polyp abandons a corallite and re-establishes itself on a new substratum. Fragmentation is common with branching forms of coral and is a process by which new colonies may be initiated when a patent colony is broken up during a storm.
The growth of hard coral depends on its structure. Branching forms of hard coral, such as staghorn or Acropora, which grow linearly, grow at a rate between one hundred and two hundred millimeters per year (100-200 mm/yr). Massive colonies with dense skeletons, however, grow at a rate between six and twelve millimeters per year (6-12 mm/yr), but these colonies may live for centuries.
A thriving hard coral reef depends on the presence of mutually dependent organisms and the maintenance of the microhabitats that they require. One fundamental relationship for a thriving hard coral reef is the relationship between the coral and the small herbivorous reef fish. Overlapping and interlocking coral branches and coral plates create a complex, three-dimensional habitat having a multitude of intersticial spaces suitable for housing large populations of small reef fish. The different small, herbivorous fish species keep the corals free of rapidly growing algae that would otherwise quickly overwhelm and kill the corals.
The intersticial spaces created by the coral branches and plates also provide shelter for juvenile members of larger reef fish species and protect them from predators during their early growth years. Without the protection afforded by hard corals, populations of economically important reef fish would quickly decline.
Another fundamental relationship for a thriving hard coral is that which exists between established hard coral colonies and planktonic coral larvae in the water column seeking an appropriate place to settle and grow. On a healthy coral reef, lush hard coral growth stabilizes reef sediments by depositing a thick accumulation of broken coral branches and plates upon which the living corals grow. The upper part of this accumulation forms an open framework characterized by abundant shaded surfaces which are elevated above the level of shifting sediments.
Coral larvae prefer to settle in this microhabitat, and they tend to seek out the shaded undersides of the coral framework where they are protected from algae, grazing invertebrates and accumulating sediments. On a coral reef that has suffered extensive physical damage, this microhabitat is eliminated, and the recruitment of hard corals to the reef slows because coral larvae have great difficulty establishing in open, unprotected areas of sand, loose rubble, or rubble covered with carpets of algae and aggressive soft corals. This is the principal reason for the long recovery time of damaged coral reefs.
Artificial reefs have been explored as a means of speeding the recovery of damaged coral reefs. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,639,657, which issued in 1997 to Saiki et al. for an invention entitled “Process For Formation Of Artificial Seaweed Bed” (the “'657 patent”) discloses an artificial reef system which is coated with a porous glassy material.
This glassy material contains silicon, ferrous iron, phosphorus, manganese, sodium and/or potassium. The glassy material will slowly dissolve in seawater releasing the
Eastman Gary L.
Hartmann Gary S.
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