Osborne Reef is an artificial reef located off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at 26°06′27″N 80°03′54″W / 26.10748°N 80.06493°W / 26.10748; -80.06493. It was originally built using concrete blocks, but later expanded with old and discarded tires in a large project. This expansion did not work, and the reef is now seen as an environmental problem, causing more harm than good in Florida’s coastal waters.

In 2007, after several delays, cleanup efforts began when the United States military took charge of the project. This cleanup provided military divers and recovery teams with real-life training, while also helping to protect Florida’s coastline without costing the state much money. In 2015, a private company took over the cleanup and had removed one-third of the tires by November 2019.

Construction

The reef was originally built using concrete blocks arranged in a circle with a diameter of 50 feet (15 meters).

In 1972, Broward Artificial Reef Inc. (BARINC) suggested building a larger artificial reef to Broward County. The idea was to use old tires to create a reef that would also help attract more fish to the area. Similar reefs had already been built in the Northeastern United States, the Gulf of Mexico, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, and Africa. Gregory McIntosh, a BARINC employee, told people at a 1974 meeting about artificial reefs: "Tires, which were an aesthetic pollutant on land, could be recycled to build a fishing reef at sea."

After the US Army Corps of Engineers supported the project, Broward County approved it in 1974. That spring, more than 100 private boats volunteered to help with the work. With the help of the US Navy’s ship, USS Thrush, thousands of tire bundles were dropped onto the reef at the same time. The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company provided equipment for the project and even helped name the site by dropping a gold-painted tire from a Goodyear Blimp. The project ended with over two million tires, fastened with steel clips, being placed on the ocean floor. The tires covered 36 acres (15 hectares) of the seabed, located about 7,000 feet (2,100 meters) from shore and at a depth of 65 feet (20 meters).

Failure

The plan was to create a habitat for marine animals to increase the number of marine life in the area. However, this approach did not work as intended. Over time, very few marine organisms successfully attached to the man-made reef, and most never had the chance to do so. While some tires were separate, most were tied together using nylon or steel clips. These steel restraints were not designed to resist rusting, and they quickly failed, causing over two million tires to become loose.

This sudden movement destroyed any marine life that had attached to the tires and stopped new life from growing on them. The loose tires were also easily moved by strong tropical winds and storms common along Florida's east coast. These tires now frequently collide with natural coral reefs located only 70 feet (21 meters) away, causing further harm to the environment. Additionally, the tires are no longer staying within the area of Osborne Reef, creating concerns for nearby coastal regions.

This project is not the only failed attempt of its kind. In the 1980s, Indonesia and Malaysia also launched large-scale tire reef programs. Today, they face problems such as polluted beaches and damaged reefs due to these failed projects. In 1995, Hurricane Opal scattered over 1,000 tires onto the Florida Panhandle, west of Pensacola. In 1998, Hurricane Bonnie moved thousands of tires onto North Carolina beaches. Jack Sobel, director of strategic conservation at Ocean Conservancy, stated in a 2002 interview that "I don't know of any cases where there's been a success with tire reefs." That same year, Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup removed 11,956 tires from beaches worldwide.

Cleanup

When you go down about 20 feet, you can see the reef. It looks strange, almost like the moon. It is hard to imagine what it looks like, but all you see are tires for a long way.

In 2001, Dr. Robin Sherman from Nova Southeastern University received a grant of $30,000 (worth about $54,548 in 2025) from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to start a program to remove tires from the reef. She was able to remove 1,600 tires, with each tire costing about $17 (worth about $30.91 in 2025) to remove.

In 2002, Florida and Broward County environmental officials began planning to remove the tires. At first, it was estimated to cost between $40 million and $100 million (about $72 million to $179 million in 2025) to clean up the reef. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) planned to require companies that damaged the seabed and reefs to remove tires from the Osborne Reef instead of building new reef structures. This plan was criticized by environmental groups, who believed it might harm more marine habitats.

In 2007, Broward County contacted the United States Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs about the Innovative Readiness Training (IRT) program, which helps the military train for real-life situations while helping the public. CWO Donovan Motley said the cleanup of Osborne Reef met the program’s goals: "This project gives military divers and Army crew members training in real-world salvage operations. It also helps them practice working together with federal, state, and county agencies. These skills could be important during natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina."

Coastal America, a U.S. government office, was asked to help organize the cleanup. They helped arrange a deal where Florida would spend $2 million (about $3.1 million in 2025) to transport and recycle the tires. Ken Banks from the Florida DEP estimated the project would take three to five years. While this time frame would not remove all two million tires, it would reduce most of the damage to the corals and coastline. Banks also said it might take decades for the reefs to recover.

In June 2007, the U.S. military and Coast Guard began "DiveExEast 07" to find the best ways to clean the reef. Military divers hoped to use the project as training for several years and "recover the maximum number of tires possible from day one." In 2007, Navy, Army, and Coast Guard divers based in Dania Beach, Florida, worked to clean the reef, starting with the areas where tires were causing the most damage. That year, about 10,000 tires were removed.

In 2008, cleanup stopped on May 24 after 26 days, with 43,900 tires removed. That year, Florida spent about $140,000 (about $209,000 in 2025) on the cleanup. Some of the tires were taken to a shredding facility in Georgia, where they were burned as fuel at a paper mill. US Army Captain Russell Destremps and his 86th Engineer Dive Team were key members of the 2008 cleanup. In 2009, they received the 2008 Coastal America Partnership Award and a letter from President Barack Obama for their work. The award honored "outstanding partnerships that help restore and protect our Nation's coastal and marine environment." Two days later, Coastal America and David L. McGinnis presented the same award to the Florida DEP cleanup team.

President Obama wrote in his letter to Captain Destremps: "I am especially proud of the many Sailors and Soldiers who have found a way to improve their training on skills important to our Nation's readiness for war while also helping protect our living ocean resources. […] Just as you protect our Nation when serving overseas, at home you have found another way to protect our Nation's wellbeing."

In 2009, cleanup began on July 24 with 30 Army and Navy divers at Hugh Taylor Birch State Park, where about 300,000 tires were stuck against a natural reef. On the first day, about 1,400 tires were removed and taken to the Army craft Brandy Station. Cleanup ended in mid-August, with about 73,000 tires recovered so far.

By the time the military had to stop their cleanup efforts, 72,000 tires had been removed by soldiers, sailors, and Coast Guard members.

In 2015, the state hired Industrial Divers Corporation (IDC) to remove the tires. From 2016 to 2019, the Florida Legislature gave $4.3 million to the project. As of November 2019, IDC was removing 2,000 to 5,000 tires each week, had collected 250,000 tires so far, and still had two-thirds of the tires to remove. By 2021, 4Ocean announced a plan to remove tires from a 34-acre area north of the original drop site. The cleanup would be partly funded by selling $29.00 bracelets made from reef tires.