California is spending $30,000 to clean up something that may not really need cleaning up. It seems that
some dastardly person has dumped old tires and commodes into the waters off Malibu. This is actually done intentionally in other parts of the world including in the coastal waters of the southeast United States in order to create artificial reefs that encourage the propagation of many sea creatures.
- Wikipedia says:
- "An *artificial reef* is a human-made underwater structure, typically built for the purpose of promoting marine life in areas of generally featureless bottom. Artificial reefs may also serve to improve hydrodynamics for surfing or to control beach erosion.
Artificial reefs can be built by a number of different methods. Many reefs are built by deploying existing materials in order to create a reef. This can be done by sinking oil rigs (through the Rigs-to-Reef program), scuttling ships, or by deploying rubble, tires, or construction debris."
The commodes and tires will be taken to a landfill for proper disposal. I fail to see how burying these otherwise useful objects is such a great solution to what appears to be a non-problem. Just think of all the delicious sea urchins, *octopuses, and the occasional brown trout that will be deprived of homes by this cleanup.
Take all that other trash that poses a danger to sea life but leave those tires and crappers where they can do some good.
*Fowler's Modern English Usage states that "the only acceptable plural in English is octopuses", and that octopi is misconceived and oktopodes pedantic. Octopi derives from the mistaken notion that octopus is Latin. It is not. It is Latinized Greek, from oktopous, gender masculine, whose plural is oktopodes. If the word were Latin, it would be octopes (eight feet) and the plural octopedes, analogous to centipedes and millipedes, as the plural form of pes (foot) is pedes.
I certainly hope this clears things up a bit for everyone.
