Sleeping with the Fishes

Dear Ben,

My husband and I have been diving for about 30 years and are pre-planning our end-of-life arrangements. We will be cremated and would like to spend eternity in the ocean. I have seen an organization (Eternal Reef) that will mix ashes in concrete, form something that looks like an igloo with windows, and place it offshore to serve as substrate for a coral reef. This sounds like a great idea to us, but we are wondering about the ecological impact that would have.

Do you have any thoughts on this?

-Carolyn Chanoski and Lynn Garrison

Dear Carolyn,

Funny, you should ask. I'm updating my trust, and I've specified that my ashes be interred in a Reef Ball and dropped into the sea.

Humans have been dumping concrete into the oceans for centuries, building piers or moorings, creating ship harbors, and, lately, building statue "gardens." The surface eventually becomes home to algae, crustaceans, critters, coral, and all sorts of life.

That's the attraction of a Reef Ball. Mixed in concrete, your remains build a home for the offspring of critters whose mommas you may have dived with. Your concrete home will gradually deteriorate over a few hundred years, eventually becoming unrecognizable. Along the way, ordinary concrete will leach substances like lime (calcium oxide), which can increase the pH of the surrounding water, but Eternal Reef's website says its mix is nearly pH neutral for the sea. And the day-to-day leach is so miniscule, the current dilute it to nothing.

Now, I wouldn't want me and my Reef Ball dropped off a boat on a coral head, but Eternal Reef (www.eternalreefs.com) lowers the Reef Balls by crane to the sand bottom in the warm water off the Florida coast and a few other states. Federal and state laws regulate all of their work. And we all know America's reefs need all the help they can get.

For between $5,000 and $9,000, about the same amount you would pay for a land burial, you, your spouse, and even your pets will have a forever home, shared with all the underwater flora and fauna in your new neighborhood. What fun!

You've made a lovely choice. I shall see you there someday.

- Ben