Synthetic Environment
Synthetic
: made by combining di erent substances
: not natural
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
The synthetic environment relates to the arti cial reefs, or biorock reefs, which Wolf Hilbertz created and developed in Tague Bay, St Croix, in August of 1976. The oldest arti cial reef dates back to the 1600s, when Japan would create arti cial reefs to increase the sh population for food production (Fisheries Technologies for Developing Countries, National Academies Press. Retrieved April 29, 2014). Because of the failed work of other marine biologists to regrow coral reef environments, Professor Wolf Hilbertz designed his electrodeposition reefs based on the idea that marine life would inhabit anything that could provide shelter, therefore creating a new reef environment.
"It has long been evident that substrates to which marine organisms can attach themselves and/or nd shelter within, attract sh populations" (Hilbertz, 6).1
This accretion technique was also used as an experiment to grow low-cost underwater structures in the ocean for developing countries, but this idea was disposed of when Hilbertz discovered that his structures could sustain marine life. Similar to the material and reclamation system, the synthetic environment becomes a material that can be adjusted by the computer subsystem, unlike the plastic within the gyre, which contains no computer subsystem. This means that the synthetic environment can be modi ed depending on the immediate, desired, or projected needs of the user while the plastic within the gyre cannot. The plastic in the gyre does, however, become a synthetic environment because it is arti cially created by man through the disposal of waste and the di erent currents in the ocean.