The Biorock Process

Picturing reef building with electricity

by Ari Spenhoff
Global Coral Reef Alliance / Sun & Sea e.V.

For more information please check:

last updated: April 2010

www.globalcoral.org

The author is a member of:

Global Coral Reef Alliance and Sun & Sea e.V.
mail: ari_spenhoff@yahoo.de
www.globalcoral.org

CONTENTS
Coral reefs are

Sun & Sea e.V.

Sun & Sea's objective is to promote science and arts in the field of mineral
accretion (Biorock Process) on an international level, and
exclusively pursues interests of public-benefit. The
organization is based in Hamburg, Germany and
operating under non-profit status.

Action needed
Coral rescue
Artificial reefs
Reef therapy
Curative approach
Crutches for reefs
Seascape design
Reef construction
Placing a new reef
Electric reefs
Jump-starting a reef
Fishhunters to fishfarmers
Shore protection
Tourism and reefs

Global Coral Reef Alliance (GCRA)

GCRA is a non-profit, 501 (c) 3
corporation based in Cambridge
Massachusetts, USA. It is a world-wide coalition
of scientists, divers, environmentalists and other
individuals and organizations, committed to coral reef
preservation.
Primary focus is on coral reef restoration, marine diseases and
other issues caused by global climate change, environmental stress
and pollution.

Reefs and responsibility

Awards and recognition
The Biorock group

Coral reefs are...

Action needed
Coral reefs face many
threats. Some are
natural stresses, such as
hurricanes or plagues of
coral-eating predators about which we can do
little. Really healthy reefs will
recover from them over time.
In a completely different category
are the human caused stresses to
reefs. These stresses are persistent
and constantly intensifying. Coral
reefs cannot recover from such everpresent, worsening stresses. The
end result of this human-impacted
stress is that reefs now have trouble
recovering from natural stresses
which they otherwise would be able
to bounce back from.
Dr. Thomas Goreau, Dec. 2008

Latest coral reef assessments

(2009) estimate that 25 percent of
the world's coral reefs are dead. A
large fraction has been killed by
warming sea-surface temperatures
linked to global warming. In spite
of an increase of heat-trapping
gases, global temperatures have
been relatively stable for the past
decade. Recent studies attribute
the stagnation to the so-called
Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO).
This phenomenon in the Pacific
Ocean allows a larger volume of
cold deep-sea water to rise to the
surface at the equator.
Accordingly, this has a significant
cooling effect on the Earth's
atmosphere.

Another explanation might be

reduced solar activity as the
radiation of the sun is currently at a
minimum, as evidenced by the
small number of sunspots on its
surface.
For sure, currents in the world's
oceans and solar activity are
subject to natural cycles. Based on
past experience, both factors will
shift again soon and warming will
resume. Experts warn: "That
resumption could come as a bit of a
jolt." Dr. Thomas Goreau fears it
will be likely killing most of the
remaining coral reefs.
It looks as time for acting is
becoming short!

Coral rescue
Large numbers of corals can be found
loose, damaged by waves or human
activity, often having had their bases
undermined by boring worms, clams,
and sponges. Many of these corals
have been damaged by abrasion or
burial, often with significant fractions
dead.
These damaged fragments almost
always soon die as the result of
physical injury.
If a small fraction of the coral tissue
is left alive these living portions
proceeded to grow well after the
attachment to Biorock reef
structures.

Biorock reefs

Biorock reefs have proven to be

effective worldwide in creating new
habitat for marine life where none
existed before, or where the natural
habitat has been destroyed.
Although it is not possible to directly
restore the ecology of all the damaged
coral reefs in the world, it is possible,
with enough dedication, to help repair
the ecology of specific reef sites at
various points along selected reef
tracts. These ecologically maintained
reefs will have a positive effect on
surrounding reef areas through
increased coral reef health and
abundance at these sites, which will
result in increased coral larvae
recruitment to the area and increased
survival of juvenile corals, and fish at
that location.
Unlike artificial reefs made of
artificial materials, the Biorock
process stimulates coral growth and
produces the natural limestone
materials that make up coral reefs, on
which reef organisms prefer to settle.
Because of their much higher coral
survival following severe stress we call
them "Coral Arks".

Reef therapy

Due to the environmental changes at

the steel frame, corals on the Biorock
reef structures grow typically faster
than under normal conditions.
Furthermore, observations and studies
have shown that corals growing on
correctly installed and operated
Biorock structures heal faster from
damages and are more resistant to
various stress factors.
Different explanations for these
observations are being discussed:
One theory argues that the coral
polyps' exoskeletons might be affected
by the electricity similar to human
accelerated bone fracture healing by
electrical stimulation, which is a well
known fact in human medical science.
Another explanation for the
phenomenon is that the electric
current lowers the acidity of the
seawater, causing dissolved limestone
to crystallize in close proximity of the
frame and be used for coral skeleton
growth. Under natural conditions,
coral polyps must expend their own
energy to create these conditions. With
the Biorock grid doing the work,
polyps can devote
their energy to
growth, reproduction
and resisting
environmental
stresses like rising
ocean temperatures.

Curative approach

Certainly, also the elevated position of the

corals on the structures offers specific
advantages to the polyps and helps to save
and gain more metabolic energy. The most
important benefits lie in reduced
sedimentation stress and greater exposure
to slightly stronger currents and therefore
more abundant zooplankton food.
However, the elevation of corals above
their normal ground level also affects their
accessibility to food supplies in another
way. At night times zooplankton rise from
deeper water columns and from the nooks
and crannies of the reef and drift past an
ocean of mouths of filter feeders that
includes reef corals, sea anemones and
featherstars, to name just a few groups
competing for the same food resource. In
stressed conditions small advantages can
make a crucial difference. In this view,
featherstars can be compared to Biorock
corals: These organisms are able to gain
vantage points by actively selecting places
where currents are strong and climbing to
high exposed points to feed during the
night. Likewise, Biorock corals on their
elevated and exposed positions on suitably
designed structures have an advantage
over natural corals and build up more
energy reserves to fight adverse
environmental conditions.

Crutches for reefs

In many places natural reef recovery is

impossible because the natural reef has
turned to loose dead rubble that shifts during
strong wave conditions. Under such
conditions Biorock structures provide the
crucially needed hard bottom substrate for
coral larvae to settle and survive on.
Furthermore, it seems plausible that the
structures provide the corals growing on
them with an additional degree of safety from
predation by certain coralivorous animals like
crown of thorns starfish.

Seascape design

Biorock projects can be of any size or

shape. They generally require a formal
set of construction plans and
specifications for implementation.
Therefore, the first step is to assess the
physical and biological characteristics
of the project site. Based on the results
of a site assessment, engineering
drawings and models are a useful tool
to visualize the physical structure of the
project and locate features such as
species plantings and monitoring
stations.
They can be designed with many layers
of holes of various sizes that different
fishes, lobsters, and other organisms
prefer, leading to much higher
population densities than natural reefs
where the number of suitable holes are
limited.

Biorock
Developed by Sun & Sea e.V.
Sponsored by MARUBIS e.V.

Reef construction
To build a Biorock reef, an electrically
conductive frame, often made from
construction grade rebar, is welded
together, submerged and anchored to
the sea bottom.
The Biorock method is well suited for
remote sites where exotic building
materials, construction equipment
and highly skilled labor are nonexistent.

One great benefit of Biorock

technology is its adaptability to a
wide scope of situations and
environmental conditions. If
required, the resulting forms can be
designed to be highly robust and are
well suited even for high wave
energy shores and reef crests. This is
because they don't block the water
movement and reflect the waves but
act as permeable barriers.

Placing the new reef

Current Biorock reef construction

sites range from small areas to one
hectare in size, with many reef
structures placed next to each
other. Most sites are located on flat
featureless sand or unconsolidated
rubble bottom which offer little
ecological significance or interest
to divers compared to thriving
coral reefs. Selecting reef
construction sites also takes into
consideration to avoid any possible
conflicts with other reef users.
Reef sites should be buoyed to
assist in their location and make
them visible for vessel traffic.

Electric reefs
Low voltage direct current is applied.
This initiates an electrolytic reaction
causing dissolved chemicals
naturally found in seawater, mainly
calcium carbonate and magnesium
hydroxide, to grow on the structure
and form a mineral rock similar to
that of natural coral reefs. The steel
is protected against corrosion and
over time the structures gain in
strength.

Cathode
4H2O + 4e- => 2H2 + 4OH-

Anode
2H20 => O2 + 4H+ + 4e-

Due to the electrical current water is

broken down at the cathode to form
hydrogen and at the anode to form oxygen.
The acidity of the water around the
cathode is greatly decreased, causing
limestone minerals to grow on the steel.

Jump-starting a reef
The electric energy used in the Biorock
Process increases growth and coral
health, allowing the reef's key
organisms to survive adverse
conditions, and allowing reefs to be
restored where they cannot recover
naturally.

The structures form ideal foundations

on which attached and naturally settled
corals grow and flourish. Robust coral
formations, along with the natural
protection from the Biorock structure,
soon attract a wide variety of fish and
other aquatic life, making the site also
ideal for snorkelers and divers.
This method is notably suited to
address some of the predicted largescale environmental perturbations
which will be effected by global climate
change in the near future. Marine
ecosystems will be among the first to be
radically altered by increased sea
temperatures and other oceanic
disruptions (e.g. more frequent storm
events, sediment runoff after heavy
rainfall, eutrophication, new
pathogens, ocean acidification).

Fishhunters to fishfarmers
In many tropical coastal communities two
critical issues are persistent: the depletion
of natural resources and pervasive
poverty. These two issues are closely
interlinked in a vicious cycle whereby
poverty drives the coastal communities to
increase fishing pressure and the use of
harmful fishing practices, that, in turn,
leads to further depletion of coastal
fisheries resources and as a result: even
more poverty.
To break the cycle requires introducing
coastal resource conservation and
management measures to ensure resource
sustainability over the long term, and the
introduction of supplementary and
alternative livelihood initiatives to raise
income levels and improve the living
conditions of coastal dwellers.

Building Biorock reefs has proven to be

effective in reanimating complex reef
ecosystems with predator fish, obligatory
reef fish and a wide range of
invertebrates.
The re-organization of fisherfolk into
fishfarmers that actively regain and tend
their coastal resources will empower
them to transform into responsible
resource managers and users.

Shore protection

Many beaches worldwide are

suffering from accelerating
erosion. In the tropics one
major factor is the decline of
coral reefs. The loss of living
corals has a twofold effect on
beach erosion: Firstly, coral
reefs buffer coastlines from
the pounding of waves by
absorbing the wave's force simply by their
topographic protective elements. Secondly, most
carbonate sand ultimately derives from the coral
reef ecosystem and thus the loss of thriving coral
stands throttles the supply of new sand grains to the
beach. Therefore, the sand washed away into deeper
waters is lost and cannot be replaced if the
surrounding reefs are not thriving.
This combination of conditions is likely to become
more important as climate change is predicted to
make tropical storms more frequent and
destructive. Coastal erosion will be perhaps the
largest cost of global climate change as whole
countries disappear and hundreds of millions of
people are forced from their homes to become
environmental refugees.
Specially designed Biorock reefs are a simple,
elegant, and highly effective new design for shore
protection structures against coastal erosion.
Within a few weeks of installation these structures
begin to build up sand. These permeable barriers
are built open rather than monolithically solid.
They absorb a portion of the
wave energy and allow some to
pass through, gradually
reducing wave energy so that
when the wave reaches the
shoreline it has much less
force, depositing sand instead
of eroding it.

Tourism and reefs

More than sixty Biorock coral nursery structures

have been installed since June 2000 in
cooperation with local dive shops and hotels,
and other local stakeholders. These structures
are located in an area parallel to the shore, about
50-100 meters from the coastline, in waters
ranging from about 3 to 7 meters depth. They are
roughly lined up, forming a snorkeling and
diving trail.
(info: www.biorockbali.webs.com )
The restoration of the previously heavily
damaged reef with Biorock technology not only
refurbished the ecological assets provided by
coral reefs in general but also added further
recreational and commercial value to the area.

Artificial reefs are not just for fish or to

alleviate erosion problems. They also provide
alternate areas for divers and snorkelers to use,
reducing the user pressures that natural reefs
are exposed to.
The Biorock reef site developed at the Balinese
fishing village Pemuteran can serve as a role
model to demonstrate the benefits of
developing tourist attractions with this
technology.

Feedback received from visitors spells out that

many had heard of the unique reef site previous
to their booking. Because the natural and
cultural resources of a destination are often what
attract travelers in the first place, it can be
assumed that Pemuteran as a tourism
destination has been significantly enriched by
adding new interests and activities to the core
product, thus helping to improve its
competitive position. The raised demand for the
provision of transport, guiding, rent of dive
equipment, boarding, lodging etc. helped to
increase income to local business and
employment. It is also notable that this was
made possible in an area located off-route from
Bali's mainstream tourism pathways. It appears
that the reef restoration effort in Pemuteran
made it able to spread the geographical
distribution of tourism on Bali and thus
contributed to the regional development.
Similar projects are under way in Gili Trawangan,
Lombok and many other places around the
world.

Reefs and responsibility

A particular feature of the Biorock

approach is the provision of a framework
for local stakeholder participation in
implementation and decision-making.
Experience has shown that development
projects imposed on local communities
often fail to address issues of local
concern and priority, and hence fail to
engender a perception of local
ownership. Building Biorock reefs
facilitates local participation within the
project cycle and brings various
stakeholder groups together and
provides an opportunity to exchange
information and build consensus
between the groups involved.

Awards and recognition

1998 Theodore M. Sperry Award for

Pioneers and Innovators in Restoration
from the Society for Ecological
Restoration
2000, Maldives Environment Award
May 2002, National Coastal Zone
Management Conference on Bali, selects
a Biorock project as the "best coastal
project in the country".
June 2002 winner of Indonesia's Konas
Award for best community-based
coastal management.
Nov. 2002 winner of SKAL International's
"Ecotourism Award" for best practices in
coastal tourism.
May 2004 winner of Kalpataru/Adipura
Awardpresented by the President of
Indonesia.
Jan. 2005 winner of Aseanta's Award for
Excellence for best conservation effort.
April 2005 winner of PATA's Gold Award
for Best Environmental Project.
2006 winner top award MIT IDEAS
Competition.

The Biorock group

For more information please see

www.globalcoral.org,
www.biorock.org,
www. biorock.net,
www.biorock-workshop.org,
www.biorockbali.webs.com,
www.biorock-thailand.com

The Biorock process was invented and developed by the

late Professor Wolf Hilbertz, an architect, inventor and
founder of the NGO Sun and Sea e.V., together with his
research partner Dr. Thomas Goreau, president of the
Global Coral Reef Alliance.
The Biorock process is being used by a coalition of
scientists, divers, environmentalists and other individuals
and organizations, committed to preservation of coastal
resources and with a thorough understanding of all
aspects related to the application of Biorock technology.
Activities of the Biorock group include the provision of
technical support to several community initiatives around
the world that aim to restore and protect reefs, fisheries
and coastlines in areas where natural recovery is not likely
to occur.
Biorock is a registered trademark of Biorock, Inc. The
Biorock Process is owned by Biorock, Inc.