OT-Vic/Ike

They were building reefs off southern Florida, near the Keys I think, by dumping old tires into the sea in their millions. Dumb idea, they are now having to try and get most of them out.

Florida did something stupid? I'm shocked, SHOCKED I say!!!!! lol

Oh be shocked ! They sank a whole ex navy ship here to make a nice place for scuba divers to visit, something went wrong and it is barely under water lol

They've been using all sorts of things but this is what I am talking about where tires are concerned, why they thought the ocean was a good place to get rid of them, I am not sure. I got the State right, the area wrong.

Just remember, Mother Nature is endlessly recreating the face of the earth - earthquake/plate tectonics, rain, moving water.... Don't think of it as erosion, think of it as recycling.

While some artificial reefs are helping some fish populations rebound, it's not going to help all situations and just might be harmful in others.

As to the dumped tires - it wasn't done to pollute, but as a solution, create reefs and recycle tires. Maybe it wasn't well researched, but it wasn't done to harm.

Cheryl

But it did represent a quick, easy way to solve a tire problem ! Sorry, I can't believe it was all done with the fish in mind. When are people going to learn the oceans are a delicate balance and you can't keep dumping in them ?

I'm not sure whether or not you're aware of the fact that the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute is in Fort Pierce, the town right above mine. They exist almost exclusively to take care of the ocean and the rivers and the fishes. They are world renowned and connected to Florida Atlantic University and are one of the top marine science facilities in the U.S. so if that experiment didn't work out, I'm quite sure it was accidental.

It's a wonderful place to visit and extremely interesting.

They do great work and have the most interesting lectures and exhibits in their local facility, including a spot where you can watch manatees if the weather is right.

Here's a link where you can read about them.

Actually, I think it was done as a clever, less toxic than burning, way to dispose of the tires and hopefully a benefit to the fish as well. I (sort of, vaguely ) recall seeing a special way back when (Nova, Cousteau, something at the National Seashore Center on the Cape) on how the "tire reefs" would be a place for certain fish and invertebrates to lay eggs and shelter from predators.

Cheryl (betting, early 70's, as that was my "fish period")

I wasn't suggesting they did it to produce harm - rather that tires are a 'problem' and cause hideous fires onshore so dumping them seemed a good, quick fix and hey, look what I am doing for the fish population.

Currently in NS we pay a $10 charge per new tire for safe disposal of same, sort of like a bottle refund. The man in charge of the programme is simply amassing them into huge mountains of tires in another part of the Province, away from Metro. Going to be a huge mess but the man will doubtless be long gone.

My comment wasn't aimed at anyone here, but some of the media pundits that seem to want to insist that all the "mistakes" made in the past were done with harm or cover-ups as a motive. Not as a way to solve problems to the best of the current abilities and knowledge.

Londonderry allows me to dispose of 4 tires "free" a year per registered car and charges $10 per tire over that. The tires are "sold" to a firm that sells off the rims and steel belts for scrap and uses the rubber for floor mats (the kind used in garages). The tires are in a shipping container so there are no issues with water pools and mosquitoes and it seems to be a win-win situation.

Cheryl

Unfortunately there is no processing place within a couple of thousand miles of us.

Roadside rest stops in Illinois have "diced" rubber from old tires under the swing sets.