Man-made Reef Plays Critical Role in Restoring Kelp and Protecting Beaches
GOLETA, CA (KEYT) - If there was ever a time to give Mother Nature a helping hand, it's now.
Santa Barbara-based Fish Reef Project is doing just that, giving nature an offshore, underwater boost in seven countries and, here at home.
The nonprofit team is now in a race against time ahead of California's next super El Niño.
"We are what you'd call 'true believers.' Nothing stops us," said Chris Goldblatt, Founder and CEO of Fish Reef Project.
We met up with Goldblatt at the Goleta Pier. He pointed to the site of an offshore reef system in nearly 40 feet of water off Goleta Beach and UCSB. Video shared with your News Channel showed structures teeming with sea life: schools of fish, lobsters, crabs, sea urchins -- a thriving eco-system, man-made, mimicking mother nature.
The underwater structures are the Fish Reef Project's patented Sea Cave invention, a design Goldblatt called "deceptively simple."
"These little pock marks are half the size of a tennis ball. That allows the small plankton or kelp seeds a place to grab," Goldblatt explained.
"When you put this on the sea floor, after about a year to 18 months, when you go down there, and there's all this marine life growing on it, it looks like nature put it there."
The individual caves are much larger than the prototype; 6 feet by 4 feet by 3 feet, each weighing one metric ton.
Goldblatt described the material as pH-neutralized concrete, strong enough to endure sub-sea conditions — even in hurricanes — for more than 100-years, long enough to help restore damaged eco-systems.
One of the Sea Caves' greatest benefits is replenishing coastal kelp forests.
Tune in tonight to Your News Channel at 6:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. to hear why now is a critical time for the Fish Reef Project's Sea Cave pilot program off the coast of Goleta, ahead of El Niño.
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