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Article: The double-edged lure of man-made reefs.(Features)(Ideas)
- Article from:
- The Christian Science Monitor
- Article date:
- August 3, 2000
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 The Christian Science Publishing Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A few miles south of the Florida panhandle, 57 feet beneath the ocean's surface, lies a tugboat named Miss Louise. Flitting around her edges are schools of belted sandfish and gray snapper, with the occasional puffer or bright blue angelfish. Hundreds of sea urchins cling to the side of the boat, and arrow crabs scurry across the bottom.
Unlike most of the Atlantic's derelict ships, however, the Miss Louise was sunk on purpose.
The tugboat constitutes one of Florida's more than 1,500 artificial reefs - structures on which the state spends about $600,000 a year. From old army tanks to school buses to concrete culverts and abandoned oil rigs, artificial ...