How much does it cost to have your ashes turned into a coral reef?

How much does it cost to have your ashes turned into a coral reef?

Costs range from $4,000 to $7,500 and depend on size. A smaller reef ball could accommodate your ashes alone. However, a large size would allow loved ones to be “buried” with you. Entire families could be buried together on a larger reef ball, which might be important to you.

What are the cons of artificial coral reefs?

Cons of Artificial Reefs

• The material might become toxic. Many materials including rubber and metal will degrade or corrode releasing toxins into the water.
• Tires didn’t make great artificial reefs.
• Overfishing instead of increasing biomass.
• The artificial reefs might be different to natural ones.

Are artificial coral reefs bad?

While artificial reefs generally enhance local economies, they can have both positive and negative effects on ecosystems. In areas such as the Florida Keys, heavy visitation, particularly by novice or uninformed divers and snorkelers, can take a toll on coral reefs.

Can you be buried in a coral reef?

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. Family members often hold a memorial service when the reef ball is placed offshore.

How do artificial reefs help marine life?

Artificial reefs provide shelter, food and other necessary elements for biodiversity and a productive ocean. This in turn creates a rich diversity of marine life, attracting divers and anglers. And states like the program because the increased tourism and commercial fishing benefits local economies.

How do artificial reefs affect a marine ecosystem stability?

Marine plants are the basis for stable coastal ecosystems. When formed around artificial reefs, they encourage a high diversity of other marine plants and fishes to set up home in the area. This in turn increases the production of oxygen underwater and reduces oxygen deficiency in deeper areas.

What is the benefit of an artificial reef?

Can cremation ashes save the World’s coral reefs?

One company tackling this issue is Sarasota-based Eternals Reefs. They combine cremation ashes into artificial concrete reefs, giving people a way to become one with the vibrant underwater life that thrives on coral reefs. Reef balls are carefully placed in specific ocean locations to cultivate new coral reefs.

How are cremated remains used to build artificial reefs?

Cremated remains are mixed with concrete and fitted into a mold, or sealed in a specially designed, waterproof concrete container in the shape of a “reef ball” which mimics a natural reef formation. Once the mold or container is complete, it is sunk to the bottom of the ocean to create an artificial reef.

What happens to cremated remains in the ocean?

These permanent memorials placed on the ocean floor create new marine habitats for fish and other forms of sea life. Eternal Reefs takes the cremated remains or “cremains” of an individual and incorporates them into a proprietary, environmentally safe cement mixture designed to create artificial reef formations.

What is an artificial reef?

Eternal Reefs uses sea burials to create artificial reefs using reef balls made of cremated human remains mixed with concrete. While artificial reefs were originally designed as a way to protect the fragile, coral reefs, Brawley’s father-in-law told him that he wished to be buried at sea in a reef ball.