Link Banana

Because I didn’t know slugs could be so colorful.

(via kottke.org)

Apparently, old New York subway cars are the method of choice. Other options:

States have experimented with other types of artificial reef materials, including abandoned automobiles, tanks, refrigerators, shopping carts and washing machines.

Another use for subway cars: your new office. (via Coudal)

Apparently that’s what’s happening. The basics:

At the moment, it looks likely that humans may have only themselves to blame for the rise in jellyfish, through decades of overfishing. There is a certain Schadenfreude in knowing that Spain, home one of the world’s most voracious fishing fleets, is destined to suffer from blooms of jellies—which will presumably do no good at all to its tourist industry. Such pleasure, however, is short-lived when one realises that while Spanish fleets have long benefited from overfishing, we will all ultimately suffer the consequences.

Though you may think a column called Green.view would be unabashedly against the creation of vast artificial islands off the coast of Dubai, you’d only be partially right.

If one’s philosophy, for example is that the ocean should be largely left alone, then whether reclamation provides homes for more fish will not matter. Others, though, may take a more pragmatic view, thinking that the development has essentially created something from nothing. Indeed, many artificial reefs—scuttled ships and aircraft, sunken tyres and shopping trolleys—house marine life in otherwise empty waters.

That conclusion, however, risks oversimplification. While there may be more substrate for coral to grow, the question of whether there is actually more marine life is complicated. Do artificial structures in the ocean actually promote more life, or do they simply attract it? Dr Love reckons some reefs do one, some do the other and some do both. So while the artificial reefs have certainly created new habitats, it isn’t clear whether this is as a net benefit for the region.