Artificial Reef constructions is a part of our

Masbat Bay Conservation Project
Habitat rehabilitation and artificial reefs using natural resources as a first step to conserve habitat diversity and increase attractiveness of Masbat Bay for tourism

Establishment of artificial reefs is one way to counter the degradation of natural habitats without restricting tourism. Expected benefits of establishing artificial reefs are conservation of natural reefs by relieving stress on the most used areas; offer refuges and settlement substrate for rare and disappearing species of invertebrates and fish, and provide nursery grounds for young stages of reef species.

Artificial reefs have been constructed from a variety of materials: e.g., wood, steel, fibreglass, PVC, materials of opportunity, tires, boulders, concrete (Grove and Sonu 1985). The material chosen, especially in coral reef restoration and mitigation efforts, is usually concrete or natural rock (Spieler et al. 2001). As one of our objectives is to provide a substrate for settlement of coral, limestone structures will be the main type of material in the artificial reefs. These limestone pieces can be found locally at beaches in numerous amounts . To honour Egyptian culture and history, the artificial structures are intended to be built like the famous Pyramids of Giza. The structures will be approximately 1 m in height, 1 m long and 1 m wide. The biggest coralline rocks will be used for the basement with smaller pieces building up the tip of the pyramid. The results will be a well-structured assemblage with cracks and hiding places of various sizes and optimal substratum for settlement of coral recruits. The settlement of organisms will not be prompted artificially. We will not transplant partially dead or living coral colonies or coral fragments!
The distance to natural reefs probably plays an important role in recruitment of artificial reefs because natural substrata may constitute an important source of migrating juveniles, settling larva or spores . The pyramids will be placed in fixed distances to each other. The distance to natural coral assemblages will be measured. Our goal is to establish 10 pyramids this year. More may follow later on.
Prior to starting the deployment of the artificial reef structures there will be a major clean-up of the area as it is often littered with rugs, plastic bottles, beverage cans, plastic bags, rice bags and old fishing lines. Limestone material will be collected at beaches in and around Dahab. This will be combined with beach clean ups. Our goal is to clean the beaches properly along the whole promenade (walkway) in Dahab and around the dive sites!