Press Kit Brest, 28 April 2015 Pilot project to restore the Natura 2000 site "Baie et cap d Antibes - Iles de Lérins": removal of artificial reefs consisting of 2,500 tires @ Direction départementale de l Equipement All rights reserved @ Jérôme ESPLA Poisson lune productions Agence des aires marines protégées Press Officer Agnès POIRET: agnes.poiret@aires-marines.fr +33 (0)6 79 04 47 07 - +33(0)2 98 33 92 58
Contents 1. What is an artificial reef? 2. History of tyre depositing in Vallauris Golfe Juan 3. A shared view: the tyres no longer meet the objectives for which they were deposited 4. The pilot tyre-removal operation: a first in France a. Method of intervention b. The fate of the tires c. A model operation 5. Operation partners Note to editors: Press kit photos and maps can be downloaded from our online library. http://mediatheque.aires-marines.fr/identification?token=1-newwvgbn1mk99 If the link does not work, go to: http://mediatheque.aires-marines.fr/identification and enter the code: 1-NEWWVGBN1MK99 Copyright-free photos and videos of the operation will be available once work begins. Available on request from: caroline.artis@aires-marines.fr
The Agence des aires marines protégées (French MPA Agency) is undertaking a first project to restore the marine environment. This is a pilot action to which the Agency attaches great importance. In May 2015, 2,500 tyres deposited underwater in the 1980s to form artificial reefs will be removed from the Natura 2000 site "Baie et cap d Antibes - Iles de Lérins" (bay and cape of Antibes and the Lérins Islands), a marine protected area in the Alpes Maritimes in the south of France. The aim is to restore the integrity of the marine environment over which the tires have scattered in recent decades and thus avoid all alteration of the site's habitats of European importance. While restoring the marine environment is indeed one of the goals assigned to the Agence des aires marines protégées by the French Ministry for Ecology, projects are still few and far between, due in particular to the technical and scientific difficulties they involve. 1. What is an artificial reef? An artificial reef is defined as "a man-made structure submerged for the purpose of creating, protecting or restoring a rich and diversified marine ecosystem. This structure may prompt attraction, concentration and protection responses in animals and, in some cases, increase the biomass of certain species" (Ifremer). Artificial reefs are used to form (or re-form) a simple or complex habitat in a zone that is devoid of any. The artificial habitat created imitates the natural functions of the hard rocky bottoms, enabling reproduction, colonisation and feeding for the food chain and protecting juveniles from predation. An artificial reef is used as a management tool. It meets various goals, particularly fish production, ecosystem protection or restoration (against erosion or degradation for example), and the promotion of recreational or educational activities (i.e. deep-sea diving). The main materials used to create artificial reefs are concrete, rock, metal and polymers (plastics, rubber and polypropylene). It shall be noted that the history of artificial reefs in France includes a phase of recycling used materials such as electricity pylons, concrete ducts and stair towers, ship wrecks, tyres, etc. Given the development of knowledge and growing environmental awareness, the current trend is to use composite materials and polymers (Cepralmar). @ Boris DANIEL / Agence des aires marines protégées
Artificial reefs worldwide and in France Japan has the biggest volume of underwater artificial reefs with over 20 million cubic metres. The reefs are mainly used for fishery purposes. The United States rank second with more than 1,000 man-made sites. The reefs are used mainly for recreational purposes and form. In Europe, France built the first reefs in 1968, off the coast of Palavas-les-Flots, on the initiative of the Prud homie de Pêche (local fishing organisation specific to the Mediterranean). Portugal and Spain have respectively 100,000 m3 of artificial reefs; Italy has 90,000 m3. Metropolitan France currently has 90,000 m3 of artificial reefs, but some have also been built in French overseas territories (Martinique, Guadeloupe, Reunion Island, New Caledonia and French Polynesia). The French Mediterranean coast has the highest concentration of artificial reef projects with underwater volumes respectively of 32,000 m3 in the Languedoc-Roussillon region and 54,000 m3 in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d Azur region. @ Jérôme ESPLA / Poisson lune productions Marine protected areas and artificial reefs A large part of artificial reefs on the Mediterranean seaboard is located in marine protected areas. While there is no incompatibility between artificial reefs and marine protected areas, reefs are nonetheless a tool which should be used reasonably and in accordance with the principles below: Objectives must be clearly defined and be in line with the vocation, purpose and local management objectives of the marine protected area; The tool must be used based on lessons learned from past experiences; The size and location of the tool must be based on sufficient, necessary knowledge of the environment (map of biocoenoses, description of populations, study of currents, etc.); Management of the tool must be effective, multi-scale, integrated and done in consultation with local stakeholders; The tool should be evaluated using simple, explicit and standardised indicators to assess its efficiency. Evaluation contributes to its management and development; When the tool is not or is no longer adapted, it must be removed by application of the reversibility principle.
2. History of tyre depositing in Vallauris-Golfe Juan At the end of the 1970s, professional fishermen suggested creating a marine protected area laid out in artificial reefs in Vallauris-Golfe Juan. The 50-hectare reserve is below the lower limit of the Posidonia bed in a depleted zone where the state of the sea bed renders professional fishing difficult. The Direction départementale de l équipement acted as the prime contractor. The aim was to develop fish production (increase the resource) and support small-scale professional fishing. Between 1980 and 1983, the anti-pollution unit called the Cellule d Intervention contre la pollution dans les Alpes-Maritimes (CIPALM DDE) tested different recovered materials to build artificial reefs, particularly concrete blocks and tyres. At the time, it relied on experiments carried out abroad, based on recovery of materials to create artificial habitats at low cost. The frequently cited example is that of Florida in the USA where, in 1972, two million tyres were deposited underwater off the coast of Fort Lauderdale at a depth of 20 metres. Used tyre storage on the port before assembly and immersion @ Direction départementale de l Equipement All rights reserved The 1980s marked the start of the first experiments building artificial reefs in France and knowledge of ecotoxicity was in its beginnings. At the time, articles on the underwater artificial tire reefs in Vallauris-Golfe Juan described tyres as "non-polluting" and "totally inert". In total, 8,141 m 3 of artificial reefs were laid between 1980 and 1999 including modules made of concrete, tyres and ship wrecks. Some 3,480 m 3 of tyres, i.e. approximately 25,000 in total, were deposited in the form of small piles or barriers. Regulations governing the marine protected area prohibited mooring, diving, dredging and all forms of fishing. Load of small piles of tires on the barge @ Direction départementale de l Equipement All rights reserved
Following the decentralisation laws, the Conseil départemental (county council) of the Alpes-Maritimes became responsible for managing the Vallauris-Golfe Juan marine protected area. The Comité départemental des pêches et des élevages marins and the prud homie de pêches d Antibes-Golfe Juan are also joint managers of this marine area. Underwater tyre barriers @ Direction départementale de l Equipement All rights reserved In parallel, the marine protected area integrated several initiatives: The Natura 2000 site "Baie et cap d Antibes - Iles de Lérins" led by the town council of Antibes. The site's objectives document includes priority measure M19: "Support the Alpes-Maritimes county council in its programme to remove tyres from the Golfe-Juan marine protected area". The Baie des Golfes de Lérins contract signed in June 2013, which provides for two broader actions to reorganise artificial reefs and to develop a management plan for the marine protected area. Location of the project area @ Agence des aires marines protégées
3. A shared view: the tyres no longer meet the objectives for which they were deposited underwater The view that all the project players share can be summed up in a few points: The tyre reefs were not sized to withstand the swells and currents and have collapsed and spread over a wider area; The tyres are tending to increase their encroachment on the marine state property and affect its integrity; The tyres mechanically alter the habitats of community importance in the Natura 2000 site, particularly the silty-sandy bottoms on which they are laid and the coralligenous rocks located in the vicinity (coverage, crushing, cutting); Isolated tyres are likely to be picked up again by swells and currents during storms and can be a permanent threat for habitats of community importance and protected species (Posidonia beds for example); The presence of a large number of tyres alters the underwater landscapes; Colonisation on artificial tyre reefs is much less developed than artificial concrete reefs (40% less), and less biomass (fish) is produced than in the natural rocky area nearby. Local stakeholders have seen that, following their collapse, the artificial reefs no longer meet the initially defined aim of supporting professional fishing. They are therefore in favour of the tyres being removed. The same finding has been made in the United States, in Florida, where an operation to remove the tyres was conducted between 2007 and 2010. 4. The pilot tyre-removal operation: a first in France Based on the current findings, the operation aims to initially remove 2,500 tyres corresponding to 10% of the total number underwater. This test phase will then be evaluated before the decision is made to remove the rest of the tyres. This will be the first application of the reversibility principle in France. This principle guarantees that the integrity of marine state property will be maintained. It is a fundamental principle of the French code of public property (code général de la propriété des personnes publiques) whereby the Government, as manager of marine state property, may at any time require removal of underwater reefs and the restoration of the site where they were laid. The Government only authorises the building of artificial reefs where it has technical and financial guarantees that this reversibility principle can be applied.
The pilot project to reverse the layout of artificial reefs by removing 2,500 tyres in Golfe Juan aims to: Stop the process of altering the ecosystem and particularly habitats of community importance; Consolidate the equilibrium of that ecosystem to conserve it; Restore the initial functions and condition of the ecosystem, to the extent possible. a) Methods of intervention Under a public contract, the selected business grouping will carry out the marine tyre-removal work and then recycle the tyres, while environmentally monitoring the work. The marine work will be done in May 2015 and should last 7 days, so as to limit restrictions on the water body and on users. A team of six to eight divers will spend five days working on the sea bed between a depth of 25 and 35 metres. Each diver will thread the tyres onto a rope like a bead, to form chains of 10 to 30 tyres. Each chain will be removed using a parachute, and then a crane, before being stored in skips on the ship. The skips will be offloaded once during the marine work and then at the end of work, at the docks of Saumaty fishing harbour in Marseille. They will then be processed and recycled on land. Sonar images of the intervention area @ Agence des aires marines protégées
b) The fate of the tyres While France's used tyre recycling industry has developed in the past ten years, it is not necessarily adapted to used tyres that have been at sea, under water, for over thirty years. The removed tyres will contain organic matter (marine organisms) and have high salinity levels, which render their recycling uncertain. To date, no tyre removed from the sea has undergone any recycling test, even small scale. One of the project's challenges lies in the ability to recycle the tyres: Either as matter by using the aggregate and crumbs to make synthetic floor coverings (cushion floorings, artificial turf, dampers); Either as energy by burning the tyres in cement factory furnaces for example. Recycling of the removed tyres will be tested in Istres (13) for the first time in France as part of the project and will require pre-processing in order to clean and grind the tyres. From the samples taken, we are confident that such recycling is feasible. Should it prove to be impossible, for technical reasons, the tyres will be disposed of at the site in Bellegarde (30). c) A model operation The exemplary environmental management of the operation hinges on its very aim of restoring the marine ecosystem and the integrity of habitats of community importance, underwater landscapes and the marine state property. Therefore, the pilot operation to remove 2,500 tyres is identified by the objectives document of the Natura 2000 site "Baie et Cap d Antibes - Iles de Lérins", under priority measure M19, and in the Baie des Golfes de Lérins contract. More globally, the project is fully in line with the Marine Strategy Framework Directive aiming for "good environmental status" of the marine environment by 2020. The French MPA agency, which contributes to implementation of this directive, has freedom to take action on environments with a view to conserving and restoring the natural features. Above and beyond the project's vocation, the operation must also be exemplary both during and after the work. The Agency has therefore planned several measures, in agreement with the Government services that authorise the work: Before the start of work, an initial assessment of the environment is performed to obtain a pre-intervention benchmark (sediments, living matter, populations); Work design integrates precautionary and pollution prevention measures: diver training in recognising protected species, anti-pollution net around the ship, operation monitoring by drone, etc. During the work, environmental monitoring will be done to ensure that the resuspension of sediments will not affect the Posidonia beds and the water quality. Monitoring will focus on penetration of light, turbidity and water quality. After the work, environmental monitoring will be implemented for approximately a year to measure the project's effects on the ecosystem (sediments, living matter, populations). If the operation proves to be environmentally beneficial, the removal of the rest of the tyres may be planned.
5. Operation partners The operation has several partners: Project Manager, contracting authority Financial partner Technical partner Joint concession holder and joint manager of the Vallauris Golfe Juan marine protected area Technical partner Joint concession holder and joint manager of the Vallauris Golfe Juan marine protected area PRUD HOMIE DE PECHE D ANTIBES JUAN LES PINS GOLFE JUAN Technical partner Joint manager of the Vallauris Golfe Juan marine protected area Technical partner Leader of the Natura 2000 site "Baie et cap d Antibes Iles de Lérins" Scientific partner Responsible for the scientific programme to establish the condition and monitor the various compartments of the marine environment Sponsor Skills-based sponsorship on environmental water-quality monitoring