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An artificial reef is a human-made underwater structure, typically built to promote marine life in areas with a generally featureless bottom, to control erosion, block ship passage, or improve surfing. Many reefs are built using objects that were built for other purposes, for example by sinking oil rigs (through the Rigs-to-Reefs program), scuttling ships, or by deploying rubble or construction debris. Other artificial reefs are purpose built (e.g. the reef balls) from PVC or concrete. Shipwrecks may become artificial reefs when preserved on the sea floor. Regardless of construction method, artificial reefs generally provide hard surfaces where algae and invertebrates such as barnacles, corals, and oysters attach; the accumulation of attached marine life in turn provides intricate structure and food for assemblages of fish. == History == The construction of artificial reefs is thousands of years old. Ancient Persians blocked the mouth of the Tigris River to thwart Indian pirates by building an artificial reef,〔 〕 and during the First Punic War the Romans built a reef across the mouth of the Carthaginian harbor in Sicily to trap the enemy ships within〔 〕 and assist in driving the Carthaginians from the island. Artificial reefs to increase fish yields or for algaculture have been used at least since 17th century Japan, when rubble and rocks were used to grow kelp,〔(【引用サイトリンク】publisher=National Academies Press ) 〕 while the earliest recorded construction of artificial reef in the United States is from the 1830s when logs from huts were used off the coast of South Carolina to improve fishing.〔 〕 Since at least the 1830s, US fishermen used interlaced logs to build artificial reefs. More recently, castaway junk, such as old refrigerators, shopping carts, ditched cars, out-of-service vending machines replaced the logs in ad hoc reefs. Officially sanctioned projects have incorporated decommissioned subway cars, vintage battle tanks, armored personnel carriers and oil drilling rigs.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Artificial reef」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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