Project Baseline Gulfstream today released a trailer video for an utmost important project that is in dire need of public attention and awareness. The project is that of The Osborne Tire Reef.
The Osborne Tire Reef is located just off of Fort Lauderdale (off Sunrise Boulevard). The man-made reef originally was made up of concrete blocks, but was in the early 1970s expanded vastly in an effort to attract more fish for gaming and simultaneously as a way of discarding old tires.
The project which undoubtedly was meant to do good has turned into a disaster as the tires now pose a great risk of destroying the natural reef closer to shore and along with that potentially killing off endangered species.
The tires were originally bound together by nylon or by metal clips. But wear and tear and corrosion has uncoupled the tires and they are now very mobile and shifts in more severe weather.
On May 18 2013, 4 Global UnderwaterExplorers from Project Baseline Gulfstream visited the site and made some gruesome discoveries of much greater migration of tires than originally anticipated.
“Tires are scattered everywhere from the bulk heap of tires on the actual Osborne Tire Reef and all the way to and on top of the natural reef at the location called Fisherman Pedestal”, commented Mikkel Pitzner, one of the divers from the dive team that visited the site.
The dive team did a long survey of the Western perimeter of the Osborne Tire Reef and made their way West ward from the reef over across the sandy bottom to the natural reef. The entire dive was filmed for documentation and surveying. Out of this footage, Project Baseline Gulfstream has made a short trailer to spur further interest by people who may up till now not have been aware of the problem.
“The urgency to remedy these migrating tires is apparent, but people don’t know the severity of the problem. That why we have created this little trailer video, to hopefully inspire people to follow the story and the development and to help raise awareness of the urgency and magnitude of the problem. We are hoping that people will also share the video with their friends possibly via the social media, so that word about the situation can be spread”, said Mikkel Pitzner about the video.
“Some 2 million tires are said to have been dumped in the effort to create the expansion of the Osborne Reef. There have been previous efforts to retrieve and remove some tires, but the total number of tires removed is, if memory serves me correctly, less than 100,000″, commented Mikkel Pitzner and continued; “Currently there are motions to have more tire removal efforts commenced, but they seem to underestimate the severity and not least the geographical range of the tire migration that has already taken place. I believe it is important that decision makers and the general public are made aware of just how urgent and severe the situation actually is.”
Project Baseline Gulfstream will continue monitoring the site and bring further updates. Visitors are encouraged to subscribe to the newsletters and to engage with the project on the social media platforms and help spread the word and raise the awareness.