Efficiency of Artificial Reefs for Local Communities Over Time

Abstract

Half a century ago it was thought that artificial reefs (AR) would be the solution to numerous problems. After the disappearance of this panacea, people started to think about AR more from the point of view of their efficiency and usefulness. However, some issues persist. Will it be possible some time after the reef deployment to reach the goals initially outlined by the proponents? It is very important to get answers to this and other questions to know about the efficiency of reef deployment. However, answers to these questions are not always easy to obtain. The AR are submerged, often difficult to access, and the resources available for research are generally scarce and very well delimited in time. In this chapter, the authors approach the case study of artificial reefs deployed off the Algarve coast in the south of Portugal over time. The focus will be on the contribution of reef structures to human activities at economic and social levels, which in some ways have benefited from these improvements on the seabed.