Eternal Reefs Revisited

In our February Issue, we carried an article about a company named Eternal Reefs that mixes the ashes of the deceased with concrete to create a habitat for fish. While many divers find it a fine way to mingle forever with their favorite critters, one of our readers found the idea quite yucky.

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Dear friends at Undercurrent:

My husband and I have been subscribers for many years and have found your publication to be most informative. I feel compelled to comment on your article regarding the “Reef Balls”. It was repugnant enough to me to think about diving and HAVING to encounter the remains of deceased people (whether I want to or not), but to even call them “Reef Balls” really put me over the edge.

It’s one thing whereby you have a choice of what you see by virtue of avoiding it or not even diving if you are uncomfortable, but to have to actually see a “ Sea Gravesite” just turns my stomach.

Couldn’t they have at least named them” Sea Caskets” or “Sea Urn” or a “Sea Memorial”? Couldn’t they have found a way to make them moorings? I find this highly disturbing and an invasion of the beauty of the underwater habitat. I realize that the fish don’t know what this is, but I do. And how many of these things are there going to be? What was so wrong with sprinkling ashes? Don’t we pollute the underwater habitat that we love with chemicals and waste and other negative things? It’s bad enough that there are accidents that entomb people alive, now we can actually choose to do this? I am in shock. I strongly feel that there should, if there haven’t already been, laws passed regarding this total invasion of the undersea word. This whole thing is a nightmare to me.

Gretchen Gettis
Coconut Grove, Fl.