Following is an exclusive
Celestopea Times interview with German seascape architect and
Marine Scientist, Professor Wolf Hilbertz. In the 1970's, while an
Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Texas,
Professor Hilbertz invented and patented the process of accreting
minerals naturally dissolved in seawater into solid forms. Since
1988, this innovative technology sometimes called Seacrete or
Mineral Accretion, has been utilized in projects around the world
through Biorock Inc., founded by Professor Hilbertz and Dr. Thomas
J. Goreau, a Coral Ecologist, to utilize the proprietary
technology for the preservation and propagation of corals and
coral reefs, mariculture ventures, and shoreline protection.
Non-profit organization licensed to perform work by Biorock Inc.,
www.Biorock.net,
are The Global Coral Reef Alliance,
www.globalcoral.org
(Cambridge, US) and Sun & Sea e.V. (Hamburg, Germany),
www.wolfhilbertz.com
Professor Hilbertz, you are known as the
father of Seacrete, the process of utilizing small amounts of
electricity, run through a wire mesh frame or rebar formation,
immersed in ocean water to accrete the minerals dissolved in the
seawater into solids attached to the metal form. How did it ever
occur to you that such a technique might work?
In the early seventies my students and I were
conceptualizing 'Evolutionary Environments', comprising an
architecture which utilizes the materials and energy available
on-site, mining minerals with converted solar energy. Logically
houses with roots and plantlike solar collectors on top emerged.
Looking at possibilities of building in the ocean I was keenly
aware that Nature had evolved building and organizational
processes in this unique environment too. It seemed foolish to
import land-based technologies into the ocean when we could learn
from Nature and apply principles and processes that had been
refined during evolutionary time. Calcium carbonate, limestone, is
abundant in seawater and supersaturated. It is the bulk material
for skeletons and shells of a myriad of organisms. Looking at hard
corals, calcareous algae, bivalves and serpulids, to name a few,
it was evident that these species knew a thing or two about
building in the ocean that no architect ever dreamed of. Knowing
that electrical processes were involved, I moved to duplicate
Nature, quite confident to be successful.
How do corals and shellfish create their
shells without a wire frame? Do they utilize a process in any way
similar to Seacrete?
Yes, they use the same process, or better, we
use their process. Their equivalent of our cathodic framework is a
negatively charged matrix which elevates the pH value of the
seawater in contact with the matrix so calcium ions precipitate
and build up the skeleton or shell. The organisms pump electrons
to create negative potentials to attract positively charged ions
(limestone) in supersaturated conditions. We use impressed current
to get the desired condition. Corals, oysters, essentially all
organisms using limestone, when on, in, or near Biorock structures
benefit from raised pH conditions of the seawater (electrolyte)
because they can save metabolic energy to get these conditions
going. Thus manifold growth rates result and survival chances
during catastrophic events are much higher and propagation is
improved.
What were some of the first structures you
built utilizing the Seacrete process?
Artificial reefs, building components,
cathodized live corals, sand cementing structures. Whenever possible we
used direct or indirect solar energy. In the mid-seventies we
operated a photovoltaic rack and two wind turbines on the fringing
reef in St. Croix, USVI, to drive our installations. Likewise we
used wind turbines in 1975 on defunct oil production rigs in the
Gulf of Mexico near Corpus Christi to drive a modular accretion
reef.
How large a structure can be built with
the Seacrete process? If you laid the wire mesh out in the correct
form and had adequate electricity, could you build a boat or a
house?
Yes, we could accrete a skyscraper and an
ocean liner with many times the tonnage of the Titanic, and make
the ship unsinkable too thanks to the self-healing properties of
Seacrete. Seriously: solar power and the calcium and magnesium
stocks available in seawater are nearly unlimited. Using these
resources projects of any size and shape are feasible, unlimited
in dimensions.
In 1988, you partnered with Dr. Thomas Goreau,
to utilize what became known as the Biorock process to help save
and restore coral reefs. You initially did some work together in
Jamaica. Would you tell us a little about that?
We initially teamed up at the Discovery Bay
Marine Laboratory, which was founded by Tom's parents. Tom, the
leading coral ecologist and I did groundbreaking work at the lab
and mostly in the field producing higher growth rates of corals on
Biorock structures. Mortality of the surrounding reefs was
progressing rapidly, until the last living corals could only be
found on our coral arks. We moved our work to Negril, westward,
and installed Biorock structures with grafted corals, observing
and learning for some years until a major hurricane wiped out the
installation. There were no funds to rebuild and coral mortality
around Jamaica was rampant. The government totally neglected
pressing marine issues, including reef restoration. We had to
abandon our work in Jamaica, but hope to return in the future to
save what might be left. Now we operate coral arks and other
installations in more than fifteen countries.
One of your most acclaimed projects was
the first piece of the "necklace" in the Maldives. What was
involved and what were the results?
The 'Necklace' was supposed to
encircle the
most beautiful island Ihuru in North Male Atoll and counteract
erosion processes. We installed but a small section with growing
reef modules and turned the adjacent severely eroding beach into a
growing one, gaining about 15 meters so far. The structure itself
is a living reef, full of life, and resilient in the face of
adverse conditions. Structurally, up to 16 cm of Biorock have
accreted around the rebars used in construction. When tested for
compressive strength, the material samples yielded up to 80
Newton, a very high value normally reserved for high-strength
specialty concrete. Most of the corals growing on the necklace
survived the disastrous heating event in the Spring of 1998, which
killed up to 98% of all corals in the Indian Ocean. This is only
attributable to the corals' resilience acquired by growing in
close proximity to the live Biorock reef.
A lot of people talk about global warming
in a disconnected way because it is not affecting them at the
moment. But you have personally seen the effects of warming and
rising oceans on the coral reefs of the world. Can you tell us a
little about what is really happening to our oceans and how
Biorock can help?
Sea level rise amounts to 2 - 3
mm/year, a very fast clip when considering geological time. This
results from melting ice and other sources of liquid water, but is
mainly due to the warming of the ocean which produces thermal
volumetric expansion. When surface layers of the ocean rise to
temperatures above 30 degrees C corals die of heatstroke. When
pollution, diseases, blast fishing, damage inflicted by tourists,
explosion-like growth of pests etc. combine with 'hot spots',
elaborated by my colleague Dr. Tom Goreau, truly grim and deadly
conditions result which kill off reefs hundreds or thousands of
years old in a matter of weeks. In addition, the ocean is becoming
progressively more acid by absorbing CO2, the main greenhouse gas
from fossil fuels. Corals cannot adapt fast enough to to these
disturbances and man-made global changes and are doomed. I am
fairly certain that in two decades all major reefs will have been
reduced to grey lifeless rubble, including the Great Barrier Reef.
The rainforests of the ocean, the most beautiful, wondrous and
complex ecosystem, will be extinct! Scientists still study the
causes of mass mortality and agencies are busy proposing and
establishing protected marine parks, as if global warming effects,
diseases, and predators would stop at their boundaries. Policy
makers listen to "experts" who are paid by governments with
special economic interests or private industries pursuing
stakeholder values and returns. As a result, not a single
effective operation on a larger scale to save coral reefs has ever
been launched. True, there are minor installations of ceramic
components, concrete forms, fiberglass volumes, thermoplastic
lattices, and larger installations of ball-like concrete
structures, hollow with some openings which owe their wide
distribution mainly to deceptive marketeering strategies; for
instance, like all concrete structures in seawater these balls are
hostile to life and one day will have to be removed like the
zillions of used car tires sunk during the seventies as artificial
reefs, an initiative of the tire industry to dispose of used
tires, useless junk, cheaply. Biorock technology emerged to supply
an active substrate and chemical conditions for marine growth by
providing a controllable ph regime in and around the growing
Biorock layers, promoting organic growth of sessile organisms. At
the moment we seem to be confined by adverse conditions to build
and operate Coral Arks in locations around the globe, confronting
mass extinctions of coral reefs. With meager support we sometimes
manage to get small projects going, support for urgently needed
projects of coral arks is not in sight.
You and your discovery of accreting
minerals in seawater into solid forms has inspired several groups
over the years to contemplate creating artificial islands for
their piece of paradise. Your name has been linked to some such as
Autopia Ampere and Skerki Bank. Is there an update on either of
those projects or words of encouragement for others seeking
something similar?
Examining the geography and bathymetry of the
globe to find a spot in the ocean where to establish a permanent
research settlement I came upon Seamount Ampere, east of
Gibraltar, and Skerki Bank near Sicily. Both sites had potential,
but Saya de Malha Banks in the NE Indian Ocean eclipsed them all.
Having about the size of Belgium, most of Saya lies in
international waters, 'in the high seas' legally speaking,
governed only by the U.N. Law of the Sea. In 1997, Goreau and I sailed to Saya de Malha's many shallow sites and
established the first accretion structure there, powered by
floating photovoltaics and thus claiming the banks. In 2002 the
second Saya de Malha Expedition with three boats laid the
foundation of Autopia Saya, powered by photovoltaics, and
performed the first modern bathymetric surveys ever conducted in
the area. The latest Saya de Malha Expedition Report is on our
websites. We are busy now organizing a third expedition to get
Autopia Saya growing above sea level.
Our readers are a conscientious and active
group. How can they be involved or what can they do to help?
Become aware of pressing local and global
marine and environmental issues and become part of the solution.
Any parting words of advice or
encouragement?
Corporate and state interests determine the
fate of Earth. The greatest experiment ever, changing the
composition of Earth's atmosphere, is ongoing. Stay informed and
voice your opinion. I write this while Russia is in the process to
ratify the Kyoto Protocol (limitation of harmful greenhouse
gases). The U.S., being the single most polluting country, refuses
to sign the accord in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence
that Earth heats up. As Bob Marley so aptly said in one of his
songs, "You can't fool all the people all the time, get up, fight
for your rights", I am about to conclude. Everyone living right
now is a stakeholder in the biosphere and it's condition. Get up
and fight for it!
Wolf Hilbertz