Peace Reef Project Miami New Times Article

MIAMI - Dec. 9, 2013 - PRLog -- FLORIDA GROUP CAMPAIGNS TO BUILD "WORLD'S LARGEST UNDERWATER PEACE SIGN"

If you're one with the earth, the ocean, or even just love The Little Mermaid a bit too much, the Peace Reef Project (http://www.peacereef.com/) is for you.

Launched in 2013, the Peace Reef Project was created by Florida residents Peter Wolfson and Roger Gillman. Its goal: to build the world's largest underwater peace sign off the coast of Florida, in the waters near Islamorada in the Florida Keys.

The Peace Reef will be nearly 200 feet in diameter and will serve as a living peace sign. In addition to the visual concept, the reef will create a marine life habitat and promote responsible marine management. The state of Florida's coral life prompted Wolfson, a former New Times employee, to try to enhance the underwater environment.

"I got my diving certificate when I was 13," Wolfson said. "The waters were beautiful, and the ocean and coral reefs were amazing. Now on the outside of the sand bed by Alligator Reef, you go out there and it's all broken-down coral, there's no color... there's fish-wire wrapped around everything. It's depressing. That's why I got into aquaculture in the first place."

Aquaculture -- also known as fish or shellfish farming -- refers to the breeding, rearing, and harvesting of plants and animals in all types of water environments including ponds, rivers, lakes, and the ocean. Coral reefs cannot form on open sand beds, which is all that is left in areas where the reefs have been destroyed by anchors from fishing boats and extraction of corals for use in saltwater aquariums, according to Gillman. Natural coral reefs need a hard surface such as limestone rocks on which to grow.

"[Aquaculture] is very eco-friendly because it curtails the destruction of reefs in island nations around the world such as Fiji and Haiti, where they literally tear apart the reefs to ship it to the United States, and sell it to aquarium stores throughout the country," Gillman said. "It's bad for their economy and bad for Haiti and Fiji's reefs."

The project will be constructed from natural limestone rock and serve as a model of how to cost-effectively rebuild natural reefs while maximizing the benefits to the environment. Already life is colonizing and growing on the limestone already deposited on the project site. Wolfson says if funding goes well, the project will be completed sometime in 2015.

The process of constructing the reef requires a lot of labor and underwater diving, Wolfson says. Once completed, the Peace Reef will hopefully become a tourist destination, taking pressure off the natural Florida Keys reefs.

"It gives people another destination. You won't have thousands of people every month going to the same reefs, touching the coral, stepping on it, and throwing boat anchors on it," Wolfson said. "You can come to the Peace Reef, have a great time, and help out."

Upon completion, the Peace Reef will be submitted to The Guinness Book of World Records as the "World's Largest Underwater Living Reef in the Form of a Peace Sign." (According to our research, it will also be the only underwater living reef in the form of a peace sign.)

"When we put it down at first it's going to be stark white," Wolfson said. "As time goes by, and the algaes and sponges and corals start growing on it, it's going to darken up and turn different colors. It's going to be very cool."

You can literally help build the reef by signing up for one of their eco-dive trips to the Peace Reef or to make a pledge visit their website at www.PeaceReef.com

Follow the progress of the reef’s construction by liking them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/thepeacereefproject

-- Shelly Davidov, Miami New Times Blog