10,000 pounds of limestone awaiting installation

Roger Gillman and Peter Wolfson operate U.S. Live Rock, a Florida-based mariculture that supplies the US aquarium market (hobbyist, public aquariums, and academia) with aragonite rock cultured at their leased site off the shores of Florida Keys.  In 2013, a novel idea popped into their heads.  Why not use their farming site to create an massive artificial reef resembling an universally recognizable shape … say, a 150ft diameter peace sign? 

When finished, the Peace Reef will be visible from the air as well as Google Earth satellite images.  Gillman and Wolfson’s hope is that the Peace Reef will raise public awareness for coral reefs, help supply the Amercian aquarium market with aquacultured live rock as an alternative to Indo-Pacific wild rock, and invite underwater adventurers to dive the Peace Reef thus “reducing the pressure on the adjacent natural reefs frequented by divers.”

The Peace Reef Project is seeking private donations and corporate sponsors to make their vision a reality.  To create an artificial reef of this size requires an estimated 750 tons of quarried aragonite and logistics to install all that rock.

Visit the Peace Reef website for more information or if you’d like to contribute.