Don Brawley, founder of Eternal Reefs, may not have known that he tapped a goldmine with his eco friendly funerals in a reef cemetery. Sleeping with the fishes is now the funeral of choice for environmentally conscious earth lovers and their families.
Eternal Reefs Builds Cemetery on the Ocean Floor
Imagine a burial at sea in an eco friendly reef cast that doubles as a fish habitat. After cremation, your ashes are mixed in with the concrete that forms an environmentally responsive funeral reef. Loved ones can be as involved in the reef making process as they would like. For a cost of $2,495 and up, you may sleep with the fishes and help the environment at the same time. Best of all, man’s best friend – if it preceded you — can accompany you.
Eco Friendly Burials A Tried and True Practice
While Eternal Reefs may sound odd to those who have purchased their burial plots at the local cemetery, the notion of an eco friendly burial is not new at all. Take for example Memorial Ecosystems, a South Carolina company that specializes in conservation funerals at Ramsey Creek Preserve.
Instead of well manicured lawns and maintained grave sites, this form of funeral commits the body to the soil of a conservation burial ground. Biodegradable coffin materials ensure that the body soon becomes fertilizer and contributes to the plant health of the preserve. Gravestones are replaced by natural stone markers or no markers at all.
Are Alternative Funerals Creating Problems?
If you ask Jeremy Wade, a British biologist, he will tell you that the funerary practices of India have led to a change in the goonch catfish’s eating patterns. Dining primarily on the remains of the dearly departed that are immersed in the Great Kali River, the fish have become man-eaters, now also hunting the not yet departed in search of a meal; great for TV, but an exception rather than the rule.
Eternal Reefs Not Contributory to Problems with Flora or Fauna
Much the opposite, Eternal Reefs is actually preserving the environment and there is little chance that a sensational story, such as the goonch catfish, will ever be associated with their funerary practices. If we may believe the Charleston Post and Courier, this kind of eco friendly burial at the reef cemetery is actually a wonderful means of offering closure to a family ready to celebrate a life well lived, rather than merely mourn the loss of a loved one.
Sources
http://www.eternalreefs.com/; http://www.memorialecosystems.com/; http://www.jeremywade.co.uk/on_televison.html; http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/oct/07/eternal_reefs_make_waves_charleston56983/
