I recently watched our planet on Netflix and pic related was horrible to watch. All these walrusses squeezed onto that little island, crushing each other or falling to their death. What if we could help them?
So I've started designing some sort of artificial ice floe or ice shelf. My first idea is to have hexagonal concrete slabs supported by some sort of swimmers or buoys that could be joined to each other to allow a modular and expandable structure that would hopefully be able to endure large waves.
But I'm worried if concrete would be the right material. Is there any material that you know off that can bear the load of adult walrus (up to 1200kg) and also survive the freezing temperatures and being constantly wet and partially submerged in salt water?
Such a structure would only help the animals if it could be placed once and then would not need maintenance for at least a few decades. Maybe we could use some sort of recycled plastic? Rubber?
Or maybe there is a way to use actual ice and somehow prevent it from melting? I know the artificial snow they use in snow cannons is created with some chemical that causes the water to freeze a little bit above 0°C, but idk if that would be applicable to create sustainable ice shelves?