Reef Ball Foundation Photos and Project Description Database

Martin County?s Nearshore Mitigation Reefs Year-6 Monitoring Report by Lee E. Harris, Ph.D., P.E,. Kerry L. Dillon, and Laura Herren, March 2007: 1 Introduction As part of the Martin County Beach Nourishment Project, nearshore mitigation reefs were constructed in the summer of 2000 offshore Martin County in water depths of 10 to 20 feet, with the GPS coordinates s presented in Table 1 and the three locations shown in Figure 1. Table 1. Locations of Martin County Nearshore Mitigation Reefs Reef Name Latitude,.N [1] Longitude, W [1] Water Depth (feet) [2] Reef Crest Depth (feet) [2] Mitigation Site A 27° 14.412? 80° 11.098? 10 to 20 7 to 20 Mitigation Site B 27° 13.553? 80° 10.647? 10 to 20 7 to 20 Mitigation Site C 27° 13.335? 80° 10.513? 10 to 20 7 to 20 Notes: 1. Latitude and Longitude near reef site centers. 2. Water depths and reef crest depths as originally constructed, with changes discussed in the stability section of each reef monitoring report section. Annual monitoring of these artificial reef deployments was required for the first five years following material placement, and monitoring was successfully performed in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004 (see Table 2 and previous monitoring reports). Due to the two hurricanes that made direct landfall in this area in September 2004 (slow moving Cat2 Hurricane Frances and Cat3 Hurricane Jeanne), and Hurricane Wilma passing through in October 2005, the 2005 monitoring was not possible, due to the lack of underwater visibility. Diving was performed offshore Martin County in 2005 after the hurricanes, but the tremendous amount of silt and debris (including palmettos encountered offshore in 10-m water depths) precluded any monitoring efforts. Numerous attempts for monitoring the nearshore mitigation reefs were made many times throughout 2005, but visibility sufficient to dive, let alone to successfully perform the monitoring, did not occur until the spring of 2006, with monitoring performed for this report in May, June and December 2006..........................