Reef Ball Foundation Photos and Project Description Database

artificial reef off Flagler coast By MICHAEL REED Staff Writer Last update: 12 May 2004 Concrete pilings weighing almost 1,400 tons rested precariously on the edge of a powerless barge Wednesday as volunteers with Flagler County's artificial reef program waited for them to fall overboard. Six-foot waves hit the barge broadside as it swayed in the ocean 18 miles southeast of Matanzas Inlet. An excavator on tracks -- heavy construction equipment -- compounded the motion as it knocked the concrete off the sides with its bucket. The pilings were once part of a bridge, but they became Flagler County's seventh artificial reef when they splashed into the water and sank to the seabed 65 feet below. The reef will create a marine habitat, which makes for good fishing and diving, said Laureen Kornel, an environmental planner for the county. Artificial reefs are made of concrete debris, sunken vessels and other material sent to the bottom of the ocean. The site was chosen because it's near a shipwreck, said Jim Netherton, a scientific adviser for the program. Algae will start to grow on the concrete within five days, but it will be much longer before the reef is prime for fishing, he said. "If you want the greatest variety of fish, it really needs to age for a year," said Netherton, who works at the University of Florida's Whitney Lab, a marine organism and biological research facility in Marineland. At Flagler County's six other reefs, fishermen catch grouper, snapper, tuna and kingfish, said Paul Treue, a fisherman and volunteer. "The reef will hold just about anything," Treue said. The project was funded by a $60,000 state and federal grant, and the Flagler County Tourist Development Council and County Commission spent another $10,000, Kornel said. About 50 volunteers help with the artificial reef program, and the new reef took 2 1/2 years to accomplish, she said. The site was identified and mapped, and the county garnered reef material. On Wednesday, a tugboat and crew from Mobro Marine Inc. of Green Cove Springs slowly worked the barge between two buoys that marked the site. The crew cast anchors, untied the barge from the tug and readied the excavator to push the concrete overboard.