PROGRESO — The director of municipal tourism, Manuel Rosado, told El Financiero that the project will be presented at the end of March or in April, with which he will seek to create a new tourist attraction for the port.
“We are doing the environmental impact studies and the reef plan, for which we need a resource that is for this type of project, which is 5 million pesos,” he said.
The project will look for the structures, developed by the Reef Ball Foundation, to be installed approximately six kilometers from the coast, at the height of the sign with the name of the port.
“While the seabed in Progreso may not allow it to be visited for 12 months, maybe it will give you eight, but it is a product that is not there, self-sustaining,” said the local official.
The representative of Reef Ball in Mexico, Javier Dajer, explained that he received a request for quotation for a project in Progreso consisting of some 1,400 pieces, which is also promoted by diving schools and a biologist from the region.
“We were talking at different depths with different approaches: for snorkeling, sport fishing, commercial fishing, there was already a hybrid project where there was snorkeling for the bathers of the area, a little further away for sport fishing,… a third stage more outside for commercial fishing “, explained Dajer.
The Reef Ball units are pure concrete structures that are deposited at the bottom of the sea and promote the growth of flora and the protection of marine fauna.
“It’s a high-tech, high-strength concrete that does not carry metals, it’s 100 percent concrete, we use various additives to increase strength and give it greater durability, which is estimated to last more than 500 years underwater,” he said.
The balls are hollow so that they are permeable, so that the tide circulates in its interior and can generate an effect called whirlpool, that causes that the water leaves by the upper part of the structure.
They have a circular shape to favor photosynthesis in the life cycle of corals, so that from any angle they can have exposure to the sun’s rays, explained Dajer. In addition, this form gives greater strength than any other.
In addition, they generate noises and changes of current that attract the fish, because in the water the sounds run 4 times faster than in the air.
In a period of around five years, Dajer has observed that the structures are covered with vegetation and mimic the marine ecosystem.
Artificial reefs like these have been installed in Campeche, Quintana Roo, Colima, Baja California and Veracruz. To date some 25 thousand of these balls have been placed in the sea, according to Reef Ball Foundation.
Source: El Financiero
