When a Canadian warship sinks into a watery grave off San Diego later this month, tourism boosters will be firing the next salvo in a battle over whether humans have the right to clutter the floor of the world's oceans.
The scuttling of the Yukon, a 2,890-ton destroyer that once stalked Soviet submarines, will create an underwater magnet for marine life--and a world-class destination for scuba divers.
The warship is destined to become just one of thousands of artificial reefs off the coast of California, including dozens in Orange County. Unchecked accumulation of artificial reefs off the nation's shores--from Army tanks to wooden streetcars to piles of asbestos-laden pipe--has sparked fierce debate.
"Over the years, we've learned that fish will congregate around car batteries--that doesn't make them valuable fisheries habitat," said Sierra Club coastal programs director Mark Massara.
But even some environmentalists like the reefs, saying they can compensate for human damage to the ocean.
The California Coastal Commission ordered Southern California Edison Co. to pay for a $50-million reef to be built in the fall on 150 acres off Orange and San Diego counties. It's to replace kelp beds destroyed by churned sand and mud from the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.
One of the newest, most controversial plans calls for turning tapped-out oil platforms, including the seven off Orange County, into artificial reefs.
Oil executives and other reef-builders say they are enhancing the ocean floor by creating underwater havens.
Critics counter that the ecological and recreational benefits are questionable, and that artificial reefs sully a paradise less mapped than the far side of the moon.
"The ocean is still a complex and mysterious place," said Warner Chabot of the Center for Marine Conservation's San Francisco office. "Until we understand those issues better, we should go slowly."
Creating an artificial reef is simple enough. Eager for protection from predators, marine life gravitates to any hard structure plunked on the ocean floor. But the nagging, unanswered question is whether such reefs merely pull fish from other parts of the ocean or increase their populations because of safer spawning at the new, protective sites.
Besides creating marine habitats, the reefs can reel in big dollars.
