This report is particularly remarkable since the site chosen was relatively small (23 Pallet Balls) and had endured Hurricane Opal on October 4th, 1995. Many artificial reefs in the Panhandle of Florida suffered from burial, movement or collapse--but not the Reef Balls. Compared to the Grouper Grottos (tm) and a second site made up of assorted structures including concrete junction boxes, concrete mixing trucks and a ship, the Reef Balls had more than double or triple the fish species diversity and was the only reef reported to have any fish in the Abundant category.
It was not surprising to us that snapper and grouper counts were in the occasional category rather than the common category since the Reef Balls are clearly marked by buoy and fished often--especially since many of the traditional fishing reefs have not been found since the storm putting more pressures on the remaining reefs.
On May 2, 1996 in Oskaloosa County, the FDEP Artificial Reef Assessment Dive Team (ADT) made the following assessments from 111 feet of water for 25 minutes entered at 10:08pm.:
REEF MODULES
Reef Balls (TM),
Manufactured & Distributed by Reef Ball Development Group, Inc.
Shape: Dome
Materials: 4-6 inch thick concrete
Height: 4 feet
Weight: 3,000 to 6,000 pounds
Base: 6 feet
Footprint: 113 square feet
Hole: from 29 to 34
Cost: $300 each (construction only, from of 1995 brochure)
Deployment: Pushed off barge for this deployment
Valp.(Valpariso) #1 Reef Project - Oskaloosa County
CONTRACT #. OFMAS-024
FUNDING: $ 25,000
DIVE DATE: May 2, 1996
DEPLOYMENT DATE: March 22, 1995
REEF. Valp. #1 - oldest deployment
REEF LOCATION: DEP Okaloosa Large Area Site
DISTANCE: 13.76 N.Mi. @ 157' from the Destin CB Buoy
DEPTH: 111 feet maximum
DIVE LOCATION 30' 09.8G' N / 8G' 24'79' W from GPS (Hand held)
VISIBILITY. 20 feet
WATER TEMPERATURE: 68
F DIVERS. T. Maher and B. Horn
This dive was scheduled for the reef ball set that was the oldest of the three reef ball deployment of the area. The buoy was located directly on the largest set of modules. About 23 reef balls were observed in this general area. Most of the units were tightly clustered into three groups, either very close to one another or in contact with an adjacent reef ball. No burial was observed on these clustered units, however 4 units out in the sand by themselves were slightly buried, about 8 inches on the base. [NOTE: The Reef Balls were hit by Hurricane Opal on October 4, 1995]
Relative species abundance is listed below in Table 2. Species richness was moderate with 16 species identified around the modules. The only species observed that would be considered abundant ( > 100 individuals) was the gray triggerfish (Balistes capriscus), with several individuals around every almost every reef ball . Common species ( i.e., greater than 10 and less than 100 individuals) were the tomtate grunts (Haemulon aurolineatum) and Atlantic spadefish (Chaetodipterus faber). It was interesting to note that there were no banks seabass (Centropristic ocyurus) observed on the reef this day. Previous dives to this reef by the ADT (Horn, 1995) and others (pers. comm. N. Birchett) had seen these fish in large numbers. Video was made available to the DEP of the same reef from N. Birchett for three days: April 3, May 4 and September 28, 1995 as part of a local monitoring effort.
| ABUNDANCE | COMMON NAME | SCIENTIFIC NAME | COMMENTS |
|
Abundant ( > 100) |
gray triggerfish | Balistes capriscus | moderate size |
|
Common (11 to 100) |
spadefish tomtate grunt |
Chaetodipterus faber Haemulon aurolineatum |
large schools large adults |
|
Occasional (2 to 10) |
blue angelfish cubbyu gag grouper gray snapper jacknife red porgy spotfin butterflyfish |
Holocanthus bermudensis Equetus umbrosus Mycteroperca microlepis Lutjanus griseus Equetus lanceolatus Pagrus pagrus Chaetodon ocellatus |
small 2 adults juveniles 2 juveniles |
|
Single 1 Individual |
batfish scorpion fish squirrel fish planehead filefish red snapper jacknife fish |
Ogcocephalidae spp. Scorpaena plumieri Holocentrus ascensionis Monacanthus hispidus Lutjanus campechanus Equetus lanceolatus |
Large Adult |
CONCLUSIONS
The Reef Ball reef Valp.#l had good fish abundance associated with it. When compared with the June 20, 1995 (Horn, 1995) dive on the same reef, there was similar number of species with 16 observed now, and 15 species then. However, several common species in June of 1995 were either absent or in less numbers on the reef now. It appears that the fish community has changed noticeably in less than one year. Only one species, the gray triggerfish (Balistes capriscus) were present in very large numbers, although the size of the individual fish was not large.
These structures were present prior to Hurricane Opal which hit this area on October 4, 1995. Very little structural impact from the storm was apparent on these structures and very little siltation or burial noted. It also appears that placing these materials very close to one another may help to minimize any siltation that may occur.
REFERENCES
Horn, W. M. , FDEP Artificial Reef Assessment Dive Team, Project report for Okaloosa County area, June 20, 1995, Unpublished report, 3 pages.
PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS
Birchett, N., Captain of the Destin charter dive vessel Sea Cobra
Report Drafted by William Hom, FDEP-May 23, 1996 C \WPWIN\DRAFTPRO\O5O2DEST 96
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