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Tag: offshore artificial reefs

Wooden Reefs get New Life

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Old Power Poles Repurposed as Artificial Reefs

Old concrete poles donated by Florida Power & Light Company are sunk by McCulley Marine Services to create two artificial reefs off the coast of St. Lucie County, Fla., Friday, Dec. 28, 2012. Photo: PRNewsFoto/FPL

Repurposing a bunch of hefty power line poles yielded a project intended to attract plenty of interest.

Various species of fish likely are interested, as are scuba divers and anglers.

Officials in St. Lucie County, Florida used power poles as the prime source of material for twoartificial reefs about six and 12 miles off of Fort Pierce.

The poles are stacked in two free-form piles about 25 feet tall at depths of about 60 and 100 feet in the ocean and are among the newest additions to a total of about 2,900 artificial reefs in the Florida area.

Florida Power and Light provided 130 poles that were replaced during recent upgrade projects. If not recycled this way, the poles might have otherwise been trashed, a spokesman said.

Some of the other reefs in St. Lucie County are formed with a mix of allowable materials, including bridge and dock pilings, said Jim Oppenborn, St. Lucie County’s Coastal Resource Supervisor.

In addition to the poles supplied by Florida Power and Light, a grant of about $60,000 went into the project for the two reefs. The money, distributed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, is from a pot of federal tax revenue from specific fishing-related and boating-related purchases.

A tugboat hauls 500 tons of old poles donated by Florida Power & Light Company to create two artificial reefs off the coast of St. Lucie County, Fla., Friday, Dec. 28, 2012. Photo: PRNewsFoto/FPL

Where artificial reefs are placed and the types of materials used are among the various factors regulated by agencies that issue permits. For the power line poles, St. Lucie County received permits from the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Oppenborn said.

VIDEO: Volunteers Remove 29 Tons of Waste from Waterways

Like other artificial reefs and natural reefs, the poles are intended to provide hard-surface habitat that fish and other sea dwellers use for shelter, feeding and spawning.

Even with regulations and restrictions governing manmade structures, opinions on artificial reefs are mixed.

Advocates say the artificial reefs provide beneficial habitat for marine life, enhance recreational opportunities and help reduce impact on natural reefs.

Opponents, such as PETA, don’t share the enthusiasm. Dozens of unique habitat models at fishiding.com

“Artificial reefs are unnecessary encroachments that only benefit fishers, divers, and oil companies—they do nothing to help local ecosystems and the animals who live there,’’ according to a statement from PETA.by Patti Roth

Artifical Products grow fish

Posted on by david

First Coast may need to help bolster key industry – fishing

 First Coast anglers see fishing spots disappearing so quickly they say it’s time to create new fishing grounds to bolster an industry that the state says brings half a billion dollars into the local economy every year.
Scott Shine, a member of the Jacksonville Waterways Commission, said he is looking into ways to add more access to fishing in North Florida before the economic impact does permanent damage to the recreational fishing industry.
A Waterways Commission subcommittee has been formed to examine adding artificial reefs just offshore and in the St. Johns River.
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The federal government has closed several offshore fishing spots in recent years because of depleted fish stocks. There are also large tracts of water that have been placed off limits to vessels around military installations for security reasons.
“While we grow and while we’re seeking opportunities for tourism, we’re not growing our access to waterways on the same level that we’re experiencing in the growth in population,” Shine said.
RestrictionsThe recent restrictions cover hundreds of miles of ocean off the Southeast coast of the United States. Along the First Coast, those restrictions are hampering an industry that generates about $556 million a year for Northeast Florida, according to a report Shine drafted in January based on a 2010 Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation analysis.
Shine based his figures on the North Florida share of fishing licenses sold in the state along with other factors, such as fishing industry tracking data the state agency used to develop estimates.
Recent federal regulations restricting offshore catches of grouper, red snapper and other fish are already beginning to take their toll on the area recreational fishing industry.
“We’ve been losing ground,” said Vic Tison, who runs a charter boat fishing service and is chairman of the North Florida Chapter of the Recreational Fishing Alliance. “We’re getting less and less areas to fish. Where’s that going to leave us?”
Adding to the frustration for anglers is a restricted zone instituted around Mayport Naval Station last year.
With little public notice, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers added a 380-foot no-vessel zone on a 2½-mile stretch of water surrounding the base.
Tison said it has already blocked many of his charter excursions that used to sail near the base.
Roy Crabtree, the Southeast regional administrator for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, said the agency takes into account the economic impact when implementing restrictions. In addition, Crabtree said recreational and commercial fishing interests were represented on the panel that made the decisions.
SolutionsWhile Shine concedes there is little sports anglers can do about the restrictions, he thinks the problem can be mitigated by creating new areas for fishing.
He said creating artificial reefs within 3 miles of shore would put those waters under state jurisdiction, cutting the federal government out of the equation. In addition, Shine wants artificial reefs to be sunk in the St. Johns River near the Mill Cove area in order to offset the restricted zones around the Mayport base and Blount Island.
“It increases access to fishing opportunities,” Shine said. “The federal government is drawing boxes on a map that are shutting down fishing and access in those areas.”
Crabtree said Shine’s proposal could provide some increased access in the face of the federal restrictions.
“If they were to put artificial reefs in state waters over there, that may provide access in fishing for anglers of a variety of species,” he said.
Tison acknowledged Shine’s proposals could keep the recreational fishing economy stable.
“It’s very important,” he said. “We’re getting less and less areas to fish continually. … Anytime you put a rock down or a structure down in the water, it’s going to create fishing habitat, and that gives the anglers more areas to fish.”

By Matt Dixon 
Morris News Service

‘Big Round Thing’ from NASA sunk south of Pascagoula to form artificial reef

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Artificial Reef TankView full sizeThe Big Round Thing — a tank once used to for liquid hyrdogren — is shown being prepared to be sunk at Fish Haven 13. The tank was donated by NASA and sank by the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources south of Pascagoula. (Submitted Photo courtesy of Mississippi Department of Marine Resources)

PASCAGOULA, Mississippi — A 107,000-gallon tank once used to store liquid hydrogen at NASA’s Stennis Space Center was sunk in Fish Haven 13, which is located 23 miles south of Pascagoula, to form an artificial reef.

The 98,000-pound tank was deployed on Oct. 26 in 85 feet of water by the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources‚ Artificial Reef Bureau, according to a DMR news release.

It was the department’s 113 artificial reef deployment since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Katrina destroyed nearly all of Mississippi’s artificial reefs.

The tank, and two smaller ones sank on the same day, were donated by the Stennis Space Center.

The sphere was built in the 1960s and used as a reservoir for liquid hydrogen in case of an emergency during testing at the second stage of Saturn V.

“The sphere was no longer needed after the Saturn V program ended,” said Bryon Maynard, a lead system engineer in the NASA Engineering and Test Directorate at Stennis. “A lot of people forgot what it was or what it had been built for. It became known as the ‘big round thing’ — the BRT. Everyone who visited out here would ask about it.”

The BRT sank in less than 10 minutes with the help of air bags attached to the top by Matthews Brothers of Pass Christian to make sure the container sank in an upright position on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. To ensure safety — proper clearance for passing shipping vessels — the tank was sank in 85 feet of water to gain enough clearance for the vessels.

Kerwin Cuevas, Artificial Reef Bureau director, said the BRT has a safe clearance of 50 feet. The 37-foot-tall, 45-foot-wide tank has a relief of 35 feet off the bottom.

Cuevas said the new structure will immediately attract baitfish that ultimately will attract predators such as red snapper, mangrove snapper, grouper and trigger fish.

“The funds used to deploy the BRT were the Emergency Disaster Relief Program funds from NOAA due to Hurricane Katrina,” Cuevas said. “This was a joint effort between Stennis Space Center, Mississippi Gulf Fishing Banks and the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources.

“We would like to thank Mr. Bryon Maynard from Stennis Space Center, who was instrumental in getting the tanks donated for reef material. The BRT and the other two tanks will provide excellent reef fish habitat fish for a long time. This new habitat will also offer our fishermen of Mississippi more offshore fishing opportunities.”

Partnerships such as these, along with federal funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration after Katrina and continuous effort by the Artificial Reef Bureau have helped to restore Mississippi’s inshore and offshore artificial reefs, Cuevas said.

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