Spreading ashes of a loved one in the ocean is fairly common in Hawaii. Often it involves a ring of mourners on surfboards, or a solemn ceremony via canoe, and flowers left to float on the surface.

One company, though, wants to put a commercial twist on the practice and establish underwater tombs containing the remains of the dearly departed.

The firm, Hawaii Memorial Reefs LLC, is in an early stage of the regulatory process yet is raising public concerns from some who consider a kind of offshore cemetery a creepy idea.

“I’m just uneasy with the whole thing,” said Andrew Rossiter, director of the Waikiki Aquarium. “It’s really spooky.”

Others have raised questions about the cultural appropriateness of establishing areas on the seafloor for cremated remains in Hawaii waters, and whether state rules permit such a project.

Hawaii Memorial is soliciting “advanced reservations” on its website where it said it plans to establish two projects in Oahu waters — “Paradise Reef” in East Honolulu’s Maunalua Bay and “Aloha Reef” off Ko Olina in West Oahu — this year.

The company proposes to inter cremated remains within concrete blocks known as reef balls that resemble roughly waist-high, hollow gumdrop-shaped mounds dotted with holes. Human ashes would be mixed with concrete to form a reef ball, and groups of the modules are designed to function as an artificial reef enabling coral growth, enhancing fish diversity and becoming an attraction for diving, fishing and boating.

“It is the mission of Hawaii Memorial Reefs to provide an eternal resting place for loved ones, while preserving and enhancing the marine resources of Hawaii,” the company states on its website, adding that its business plan represents “a private initiative for public benefit.”

Hawaii Memorial, formed in 2012 and led by former Hawaiian Telcom project manager Richard Filanc III, did not respond to emailed requests for comment.

Rossiter, who has seen examples of a memorial reef in Florida that involved mixing cremated remains with concrete to form body statues that sit in their watery graveyards, said he found the concept off-putting.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a body that has been in the water for a month or so. It looked exactly like that,” he said. “It was spooky. I’m not keen on memorial reefs.”

Chris Goldblatt, founder of a California-based nonprofit advocate of artificial reefs called Fish Reef Project, has another view. “I hope they succeed,” he said of Hawaii Memorial. “We’re running out of space on land (for burials). Why not put people in the ocean?”

Marine habitat growth

Using reef balls or other structures to house cremated remains on the ocean floor is a small but growing niche in artificial reef development and part of a trend of alternative eco-friendly burials sometimes called green burials.

In Florida, cremation services company Neptune Society established a memorial reef off the coast of Miami that they call the largest man-made reef in existence.

The Neptune Memorial Reef covers 16 acres about 40 feet below the surface where cremated remains can be added to a complex of arches, columns, lion statues and benches designed as an artistic representation of the Lost City of Atlantis.

Neptune Society said marine life around its reef expanded from nothing to thousands of fish in two years and that the site became a popular destination for scuba divers, snorkelers, researchers and families whose loved ones have had their remains interred at the site.

“The reef serves as an underwater mausoleum for cremated remains, as well as a home for a growing marine habitat, fulfilling its mission of creating life after life,” the company said on its website.

Another company in the business, Eternal Reefs, has placed reef balls containing human remains in waters off New Jersey, Maryland, South Carolina, Florida and Texas. The company claims that the largest “green memorial” in the United States is off Sarasota, Fla., where more than 600 of its reef ball monuments have been placed.

Eternal Reefs is an affiliate of the nonprofit Reef Ball Foundation that references what it calls considerable interest and several attempts to use reef balls in Hawaii, though no one to date has obtained necessary permits.

One past effort, according to the foundation, was made by Gordon Okamoto, with now defunct Argent Ltd., who expressed interest around 2000 and then again in 2002 but didn’t bring the project to fruition.

The state Department of Land and Natural Resources encourages development of artificial reefs, though whether it would support a memorial reef with cremated remains has yet to be determined.

DLNR’s Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands rejected an application from the company for a conservation district use permit for its proposed Maunalua Bay site earlier this month because the application was incomplete.

Another DLNR division governing aquatic resources raised a question of whether Hawaii Memorial’s plan constitutes a cemetery under state law and therefore would have to comply with rules governing cemeteries.

DLNR’s Division of Aquatic Resources also raised concerns about the chemical content of human remains and asked for more information, including how many reef modules are proposed and what conditions exist at the proposed site.

Artificial reefs on Oahu

Generally, DLNR is supportive of artificial reef development that has included private endeavors that produced reefs off Waikiki and Lahaina for Atlantis Submarines and one for tour firm Roberts Hawaii off Kewalo Basin.

According to the agency, Hawaii’s first artificial reef was created in Maunalua Bay off Kahala in 1961 and covers 74 acres.

Other artificial reefs include one covering 141 acres off Waianae in 1963, one off Maui covering 54 acres that same year, one off Kualoa covering 1,727 acres in 1972 and one off Ewa covering 31 acres in 1986. These reefs were deployed from 50 to 420 feet below the surface.

Material for these five state projects was primarily automobile bodies in the early 1960s, and later included concrete pipes, barges, tires and even a minesweeper. In the past two decades, which included an expansion of Maui’s artificial reef, the main component has been flat concrete slabs with two edges turned up in opposing directions resembling a Z without the slant.

DLNR claims that artificial reefs increase fish biomass up to 20 times and fish diversity up to five times compared with barren areas.

The agency has two existing objectives: expanding existing artificial reefs and adding a few new reefs. However, the DLNR artificial reef program has no funding to accomplish its goals.

An average deployment costs about $230,000 using 1,300 to 1,800 Z-blocks each weighing 2,800 pounds, according to the agency.

Memorial reefs are seen by some as a way to pay for artificial reefs. Prices to make and deploy a reef ball from Eternal Reefs range from $2,995 to $7,495.

Still, the regulatory process can be challenging. Requirements typically include an environmental impact statement, a state conservation district use permit and permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and state Department of Health.

Hawaii Memorial is working on producing an environmental assessment, and recently published a public notice seeking information on cultural activities in a 7-acre area off Waialae Nui and Waialae Iki where it proposes a memorial reef.

The corps said it has not received an application for an artificial reef from the company.

Placement is key

Rossiter said placement of artificial reefs is key to achieving beneficial results and that putting down reef balls somewhere that won’t support coral growth and fish development doesn’t benefit the ocean environment.

“It has to be done with scientific underpinning to work well,” he said. “Done right, they can really do wonders.”

Added Sam Kahng, a Hawaii Pacific University associate professor of oceanography: “For any coral reef augmentation effort, it is important to understand what limits corals and coral reef growth at the particular location in question. Artificial modules like reef balls provide hard substrate on which corals can settle. The question to ask is what factor limits corals in a particular area. If the limiting factor is something else, then adding hard substrate may not enhance corals and coral reef growth.”

Robert Richmond, research professor and director of the University of Hawaii’s Kewalo Marine Laboratory, said artificial reefs usually function more as fish aggregation devices that make fishing easier but don’t replace corals and reefs that have died.

“Reef decline is the issue that needs to be addressed here, and artificial reefs will not solve the problems of runoff, sedimentation, overfishing and climate change,” he said in an email, adding that the purpose of Hawaii Memorial’s plan is important. “If it’s simply for profit, perhaps there are better uses of submerged areas, as these are public property.”