Creative environmental engineering’ and the cost of environmental claims: legitimisation of tire artificial reefs by us federal scientists in 1960s–1970s

Between 1966 and 1974, the US Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife carried out research on the possibilities of using waste materials for constructing artificial reefs. One of the main outcomes was the recommendation to construct reefs from waste tires. With the encouragement of the findings, more than 700 reefs containing tens of millions of tires were built along the US Atlantic seaboard. This article investigates the artificial reef study at Sandy Hook Marine Laboratory and analyses environmental claims built on its results. The results show that fisheries scientists involved in artificial reef research framed tire artificial reefs as a solution to two problems: recreational fishing enhancement and waste disposal. Their claims about the appropriateness of tire reefs became a driving force of their construction in the US.