3rd June 2020
Reef Deployment in Matosinhos beach
On Wednesday, 3rd of June 2020, CIIMAR-University of Porto successfully deployed nine 3D printed artificial reef units from the 3DPARE project on the seabed close to Matosinhos beach /Leixões harbour in Porto (northern coast of Portugal), with the collaboration of APDL and Multisub.
This was the culmination of the research carried out for almost two years by all the project partners in order to choose the best two materials and designs for the artificial reef units that would allow a higher bio-colonization and low environmental impact.
Artificial reef units of two different materials, two levels of complexity and two general shapes were deployed plus a control block.
Just one day after deployment (less than 24h) the artificial reefs already had new inhabitants. Less than a week after deployment the inhabitant species list continued to grow (seastars, octopuses, blennies, shrimps and more).
The units are going to be monitored periodically in order to assess the most efficient features.
