moreheadcity
June 1999 North Carolina DNR ordered 600 Reef Balls from Reef Innovations April 1999 Reef Innovations has contracted to make and deliver 400 Reef Balls for another project in North Carolina this month.
Reef Balls were installed last fall as part of larger breakwater/sill demonstration project designed by Scott Hardaway et al. Wave transmission appears high because not enough rows of reef balls were used nor was there a tight spacing as specified by Reef Beach Company. Smooth cordgrass was planted too late for much growth but is at least still in place. Results should be clear by the end of next summer (2007). Oyster bag reef to left of balls appears to have already lost the planted marsh.
We?ve got 66 reef balls (under the pier), said pier worker Ronnie Bullard, who usually finds time to fish for king mackerel a few days each week, starting in the spring and finishing in the fall. (The reef balls) provide good habitat for baitfish and seem to draw in lots of fish.
The reef balls are split, 33 on each side of the pier, beginning at the cleaning sink to the T at the piers end.
Holes were drilled in the top of the pier?s reef balls, so they could be slid over the pilings after the wooden supports were pile-driven into the ocean floor.
Trout fishing always has been good at Long Beach Pier, but now it may be even better because of the reef balls. These concrete domes also attract other species, such as flounder. In fact, famed Southport flounder angler and guide Jimmy Price calls them flounder motels.
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