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Experimental tiles bring life to seawall along San Francisco's Embarcacero

Experimental tiles bring life to seawall along San Francisco's Embarcadero
Experimental tiles bring life to seawall along San Francisco's Embarcadero 03:07

Along San Francisco's Embarcadero, a groundbreaking experiment is revealing promising results.

At the aging seawall, during low tide, a diver with the Port of San Francisco carefully removed nine experimental tiles early Monday. Three years ago, port technicians installed them on the seawall, and into bay waters.

Now, after two years of monitoring, the tiles were slowly hoisted up, placed into protective bags, and into the hands of scientists from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, or SERC for short.

Each tile has become a thriving new community – packed with marine life.

"Even in the midst of the city with all its hard structures, that marine life still finds habitat, and we're just trying to enhance that," Jeffrey Blumenthal, a biological sciences technician with the SERC, said as he inspected one of the tiles.

The tiles are part of a special collaboration between the Port and SERC known as the Living Seawall pilot project. Tiles have special textured surfaces that are intended to promote biodiversity and support native species.

"Living seawalls are this idea of how we still protect and provide the needs of shoreline defense that a seawall does but how can we add some habitat value to it," said Corryn Knapp, a scientist at the Smithsonian.

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A scientist examines sea life on an experimental tile placed on the seawall along San Francisco's Embarcadero, July 14, 2025. CBS

San Francisco's rock and concrete seawall was built more than 150 years ago. Experts warn that It's deteriorating and at risk.

 "The seawall is one big continuous pieces of infrastructure, that's sitting on young bay mud but it's sitting on young bay mud, and squishy soils and in an earthquake, it may likely move bay ward. The other risk, of course, is sea level rise," said Elaine Forbes, executive director of the Port of San Francisco.

The Embarcadero already gets flooded during king tides.

Global warming is projected to cause sea levels around the bay to rise between three and six feet, perhaps even more, by the end of the century.

"We need to fortify our seawall and our line of defense," said Forbes.

One line of defense would be to boost the bay's biodiversity. Climate and marine scientists explain how the more species living in the bay, the more resilient and healthier the waters will be, as the planet continues to warm.

As for the tiles, early results show they do indeed promote biodiversity and support native species.

From Olympia oysters to seaweed and crabs, scientists have detected 10 different native species living on the tiles. 

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