Conseil Général 06, Nice, France
Observatoire du Développement Durable, Ville de Nice, France
French Agency of marine protected areas, Brest, France
Overall project coast 205 000 euros (Funding 75 000 euros)
January 2015 - April 2016
In the bay of Golfe Juan, due to an important degradation of marine habitats, a protected area has been established in 1980. Artificial reefs were immersed to improve the development of marine life. Some of these artificial reefs consist of tires. A first analysis of the quality of the sediment and the water column was carried out in 2007 and demonstrated the potential toxic effects of artificial reefs tires using the caging of marine mussel, Mytilus galloprovincialis.
The objective of the present study is to test the removal of submerged tires during an experimental phase removal of 2,500 tires (10% of total number of tires). This pre-test will allow to assess the validity of a restoration of the area, while respecting (i) the requirements of the Natura 2000 network (habitat conservation), (ii) the implementation of the National Biodiversity 2011-2020 strategy that includes maintaining good environmental status of the marine environment.
If the experiment is successful, a large scale phase will aim to remove all of the tires of the area. However, it is necessary beforehand to assess the condition of marine sediments in the area affected by the dumping of tires and, in a second step, to establish an environmental assessment after the removal operation. The work initiated by the ECOMERS laboratory stands on these two axes. The results of this research program will assess the feasibility or not of the complete removal of the tire project.