Structures a home for sea creatures
Three acres of coquina and worm rock could be covered by a beach renourishment project. / Photos courtesy of Karen Holloway-Adkins
A new beach renourishment project is in the works for Brevard County, and conservation-minded residents are worried that trucking in the sand will bury a local treasure.
The Brevard County Mid Reach Shore Protection Project aims to dump 573,000 cubic yards of sand onto the 7.8-mile section of beach between Patrick Air Force Base and Indialantic. By adding up to 20 feet of beach, three acres of coquina and worm rock reef will be smothered.
But marine biologist Karen Holloway-Adkins knows the reef is more than just a pile of rocks.
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“Worm rock doesn’t get much credit. A lot of people don’t even know what’s out there.” said Holloway-Adkins. “It’s a full-on living reef.”
The large, cauliflower-shaped boulders are not rocks, but the protective sand structures secreted by colonies of bristle worms of the family Sabellariidae (pronounced “SAH—bell—AIR– I—dee”).
But the worms are just a small piece of the reefs’ complexity.
“The algae growing on the reef provides food for turtles and fish.
“The structure is excellent habitat for crabs, blennies, sheepshead, snook, pompano and more,” said Holloway-Adkins, who lives in Indialantic. “I’ve even seen an octopus under one of the ledges.”
Holloway helps run a nonprofit research company, East Coast Biologists, Inc., and was hired by the County to aid in an Environmental Impact Assessment for the project.
Her work revolves specifically around the green sea turtles which feed almost exclusively on the red, green and brown algae growing on the reef. She’s logged countless hours snorkeling the reefs in the Mid Reach zone — when the underwater visibility permits it.
“The juvenile greens will forage and hang around the intertidal zone, sometimes in less than two feet of water.”
The high-energy intertidal zone — the area dappled with small tide pools near shore — is threatened most by the filling project.
“Those pools are important for gamefish,” Holloway-Adkins said. “That’s where you’ll see schools of baby pompano. It’s an important nursery.”
The threat to gamefish and the local ecology has Space Coast fishing authority, Captain Rodney Smith, reeling with concern.
“It’s an extremely unique habitat because this reef is also part of the Indian River Lagoon estuary,” said Smith, a fishing guide for over 20 years and founder of Coastal Angler Magazine. “It’s all connected ecologically. It’s such a treasure.”
Smith conducts guided surf-fishing clinics and recognizes the significance of the reefs for the recreational fishery. As one who makes his living from the area’s natural splendor, he empathizes with business and home owners who are faced with protecting their assets on the beach.
“Change is definitely difficult,” Smith said. “But the quality of life drops during these projects, the beach as we love it is destroyed and the degradation to the habitat is profound.”
As far as the economics of the fill, Smith would like to see changes in how these projects are carried out. With Florida’s dynamic coastline of shifting sand dunes, replenished beaches can be stripped away by hurricanes and strong storms.
“Millions of taxpayer’s dollars are swept into the ocean in a day,” Smith said.
“It’s like throwing sand into a volcano. We need to reassess how we’re managing our beaches.”
Smith’s wish may somewhat come true.
Mike McGarry, the Beach Project Coordinator for Brevard, says that the Mid Reach project is a one-of-a-kind operation designed by the Army Core of Engineers.
“The Mid Reach project is vastly different from a typical beach renourishment. We’ve made sure a large weight has been placed on the environmental consequences.”
Sand will be harvested offshore, stockpiled in Port Canaveral and placed on the beach by dump truck. There won’t be any rusty pipes snaking through the sand from offshore pumping barges, as in previous filling ventures.
“Less than 10 percent of the rocks in the Mid Reach zone will be covered, allowing 90 percent of the habitat to remain,” McGarry said.
“We don’t discount that there won’t be an impact to the environment, but we’ve taken all the steps possible to minimize that impact.”
To mitigate for any damage to the reef that can’t be avoided, the county and the ACOE have devised an artificial reef system that will be placed in parts of the Mid Reach stretch.
Coquina rocks embedded in concrete-block grids will be laid by crane in 12-15 feet of water — after the fill is completed.
The reef habitat in the Mid Reach zone has been designated as an “Essential Fish Habitat” by the National Marine Fisheries Service, which requires the involved parties to take precautions to ensure the health of the ecosystem, including the design of these ‘mitigation reefs’.
But they’re still not the real, living thing.
And although keeping the surf-side infrastructure intact is vital to the area’s economy, Rodney Smith feels that healthy reefs are a part of our culture that can’t be bought.
“You can’t destroy a natural reef and then try to fix it,” Smith said. “They’re priceless.”
