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A Q&A With Friends of RGV Reef Conservation Leader Gary Glick
NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / Enbridge Originally published in Enbridge's 2...
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[{"type":"text","content":"A Q&A With Friends of RGV Reef Conservation Leader Gary GlickNORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / EnbridgeOriginally published in Enbridge's 2022 Sustainability ReportAs part of a longstanding partnership, Enbridge is helping a conservation organization and research team explore artificial reefs' potential to sequester carbonHow did you first get involved with RGV (Rio Grande Valley) Reef?It started with my love of fishing in the Rio Grande Valley; that's how I first got involved in conservation in this area. The reef initiative began in 2017, when we created a 1,650-acre artificial reef to help boost biodiversity in the Gulf. A $250,000 Enbridge Fueling Futures grant was vital to our ability to create this enormous structure, which includes intentionally sunken vessels and a huge number of cinderblocks. (In other words, there was heavy lifting.) That grant was the beginning of what's turned out to be a very strong partnership. Over the past six years, RGV Reef has attracted millions of fish to the area-and even drawn some endangered sea turtles.What's the current focus of the work around RGV Reef?Researchers from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), led by Dr. Richard Kline, are carrying out a marine study to learn even more about the difference this structure is making ecologically. This is the largest artificial reef in Texas, and the idea is to understand two very important potential impacts of the reef structure: how this resource, and resources like it, restores and enhances biodiversity, and the potential for the organisms that make up this biodiversity to trap carbon. Quantifying the number of species on and around the reef structure will tell us just how successful this structure is from a biodiversity standpoint. Further, the world's oceans store more carbon than any other area on Earth, but until now, artificial reefs and the carbon sequestration potential of the encrusting organisms attracted to them have not been extensively studied.How is the research being conducted?The UTRGV team is using a range of approaches. They take physical samples and also use multiple sonar-based measurements to quantify the biomass at the site. Ultimately, the idea is to develop a precise estimate of its weight-and how much of that weight is composed of stored carbon. The work involves a lot of advanced equipmen...