13-03-2025
Bay county completes phase 2 of artificial reef project
BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) – Bay county officials continue to work on adding more artificial reefs to the Gulf.
Bay County deployed phase two of their artificial reef project on Wednesday. The crew spent about four hours installing 10 prefabricated artificial reefs between 17 and 31 miles offshore.
Local boaters say artificial reefs provide space for more fish to grow in the area.
'It's the habitat that protects the fish, especially from predators. Let's think about it. Smaller fish hide there from predators. The habitat has a whole array of different types of microorganisms that feed the tiny fish and plus the coral, the soft coral that we have most stuff here that grows on that creates that habitat,' local boater Eddy Morris said.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation is managing the project with the help of Bay County. However, the funding comes from the Restore Act, BP's financial settlement of the deep horizon oil spill. County officials say this project is helping the area recover, not just from physical damage, but economic damage as well.
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'Artificial reefs that are really important to our economy, especially here in Bay County. We have somewhere between 100 and 130 charter vessels for fishing and for diving. And they really depend. These artificial reef resources. For their jobs. And and our economy. Based and tourism really. Depends on attracting people that want to come here and go fishing and diving,' Florida Sea Grant Bay County Extension representative Scott Jackson said.
These reefs are modules specially designed for this part of the gulf; they include an advanced tracking system.
'We actually have G.P.S. Antennas on the actual booms. That placed artificial reefs. I mean, they go precisely where we want them to within just two or three feet. And so that's a big change. And so we can report those numbers more accurately today. Saving people time and effort and trying to locate the reefs that are being put down,' Jackson said.
County officials have not yet set a date for the third and final phase of the artificial reef project.
The team plans to sink an old tugboat to create an artificial reef. They're in the final stages of cleaning it up. They hope to set a deployment date in a few weeks.
If you are looking to find some of the artificial reefs, you can find their locations here.
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