Green Guru: How Eco-friendly Are Reef Ball Burials?

Courtesy of www.reefball.org

Green Guru: How Eco-friendly Are Reef Ball Burials?

Things to consider before burying your loved one at sea.

By Susan Cosier

Published: January-February 2012

Is using concrete to build reef balls an eco-friendly way to be buried?

Elizabeth Wyman, Chicago, IL

Whether one’s final resting place is on land or at sea, the burial process can be surprisingly energy and chemically intensive. Yet there are some environmentally friendly alternatives, like burials in biodegradable caskets or at sea, and reef balls may prove to be one of them.

Those who opt for interment in an artificial reef are first cremated. Then their ashes are mixed with concrete and molded into a reef ball—a hollow, holey structure that’s up to six feet wide and five feet tall. It sits on the seafloor, ideally creating marine habitat and preventing erosion. Family members often hold a memorial service when the reef ball is placed offshore. A number of companies partner with the Reef Ball Foundation, a nonprofit focused on reef rehabilitation, for such burials. (The foundation doesn’t just do interments—in April, for instance, to prevent erosion, it installed pure-concrete structures off of Bird Island for Audubon of Florida.)

The ecological benefits are still being studied, but in degraded areas some artificial reefs have been shown to attract fish. “Depending on the site, the first thing that settles is algae and diatoms,” says Robin Sherman, a Nova Southeastern University biologist who has studied artificial reefs. “As they set up housekeeping, you get what eats them, like shrimp and other invertebrates. Then the fish will come.”

The downside is that they’re made from cement. Cement plants generate 2.4 percent of the world’s CO2 emissions, and global cement production is about two billion metric tons a year; each of the 200 or so funerary reef balls laid annually uses at least a quarter of a ton. A traditional burial has its cons, too, including toxic embalming fluids and steel caskets.

For a truly eco-friendly option, consider a biodegradable casket or shroud—or forgoing one all together (see “Dying to Be Green,” September-October 2010).

Send your vexing questions to greenguru@audubon.org.

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Susan Cosier

Susan Cosier is a senior editor at Audubon magazine. Follow her on Twitter @susancosier.

Type: Author | From: Audubon Magazine

Reef Ball Oasis

Submitted by Ken Jardine (not verified) on Fri, 2013/03/29 - 9:20am.

Ahoy all,

Id like to add some 1st hand commentary on reef balls. I helped place and monitor a dozen reef balls in the Bras D'or Channel in Cape Breton Nova Scotia about 10 years ago. within 10 minutes of placing them I did a dive and photographed lobster moving into them. Over the years we have been diving the site and I can attest to the marine plant growth and both shell and fin fish living there. This is on a seabed of flat featureless silt the reef balls here are an oasis of life.

All other things considered I believe the hundred plus years life span of these structures will contribute bio mass and oxygen to the marine environment of such quantitates as to far out weigh any initial carbon footprint.

I work and play in on and under the ocean and see this as a positive for the watery part of my home.

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Reef Balls

Submitted by Ken Jardine (not verified) on Fri, 2013/03/29 - 9:19am.

Ahoy all,

I work and play in on and under the ocean and see this as a positive for the watery part of my home.

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Comments on Reef Balls

Submitted by Susan Cosier (not verified) on Mon, 2012/01/30 - 2:14pm.

Thank you all for your thoughtful comments!

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Reef Balls Eternal Reefs and Green Memorials

Submitted by George Frankel (not verified) on Tue, 2012/01/10 - 2:59pm.

Hello Susan,

Todd Barber has explained in great detail the environmental contribution and the carbon impact of Reef Balls used as Eternal Reefs make to the marine environment and I echo his comments.

In addition there are other long term environmental contributions that should be considered regarding Reef Balls and Eternal Reefs as a memorial choice. Every form of memorialization has a carbon footprint, some more, others less. When trying to determine what is 'green' or what is 'greenest' it is important to look at the net sum addition or subtraction of environmental impact the memorial chosen will have in terms of contribution to future generations.

The Eternal Reef process is designed to involve the family with the creation of the Eternal Reef. The entire program is a positive experience that is designed to educate and inform participants about the value and importance of reefs. Families take ownership of these memorials. They become personal tributes that they created with their own hands and they are now personally vested in the health and wellbeing of the marine environment.

The habitat they provide helps to remove human pressure from other existing reefs. To give you some idea of the value these reefs provide I am attaching two short video's, one from Sarasota, Fl showing an Eternal Reef after a single year of growth and development, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5sjtfRLPvA . And, a video off of Miami showing the development over several years; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_ld3GZQbvU .

The issue raised by Dianne Richardson's comment needs to be addressed. This is a very popular misconception regarding cremation. The funeral industry has never been supportive of cremation because of the lost revenue from traditional burials. As a result they have never addressed the issue of fuel consumption during the cremation process.

Once again there is a carbon footprint with all memorial and burial choices. However the amount of fossil fuels utilized in the cremation process is generally around 22 gallons of fuel per cremation. Not the equivalent of driving 4800 miles as so often is quoted.

There are huge variables in fuel consumption, the age and type of equipment; the question of this being the first cremation of the day; the actual type of fuel, propane, LNG or natural gas, being used; and the body mass that is being cremated. All of these considerations will significantly impact the amount of fuel being use in a single cremation.

The question of what constitutes "green" is always going to be defined in shades of "green". There are frequently short term costs that create long term benefits. As long as those costs and benefits are fully understood families can make meaningful decisions that will result in memorial choices that will benefit future generations.

The entire Eternal Reefs process is designed to heal both the sea and the soul.

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Eternal Reefs...more green than you think!

Submitted by Todd Barber (not verified) on Mon, 2012/01/09 - 4:46pm.

Hi Susan,

I applaud your care for our world, but would like to point out a few things about the Eternal Reef folks.

First, although artificial reefs have been debated if the attract or produce fish, science has now proven that DESIGNED artifical reefs (such as the Reef Balls which is the design the Eternal Reefs folks have chosen for their families) do indead have production quality and actually create natural reef habitat. (Artificial reefs that only attract fish for which you talk about are more in the category or high profile, low complexity and non-durable materials such as Ships, car bodies, white goods, FADs (Fish attracting devices like underwater Kites), Tires, and light gauge steel products).

I would also like to point out that many families use the services of Reef Ball Australia to purchase carbon credits along with their Reef Balls to offset the carbon created in the manufacture of the cement.

And in fact, Reef Ball deployed in coral reef areas are actually a long term carbon sink because corals grow on the Reef Balls turning carbon into limestone and sequestering it. Studies done at LSU show this also works for Reef Balls deployed where there are oysters at even a higher sequestration rate and LSU has even proposed Reef Balls for large scale carbon sequestration programs.

Not only that, but each Reef Ball will create approximately 400 pounds of marine biomass (living marine life!) every year indefinitely, this helps to sustain ocean biodiversity and helps to balance the marine habitat loss due to human change and influences.

In the end, each person must make their own choices, but know that a choice for being placed in a Reef Ball is without any doubt one of the most green choices anyone can make.