# January Marine Advisory Committee meeting notes: "Reefs"



## WhackUmStackUm (Jan 31, 2010)

For those who are interested, this is an excerpt from the Escambia County Marine Advisory Committee (MAC) January meeting minutes:

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*Casino Reef Site*
Robert Turpin spoke about the Casino Rubble that was deployed off the beach back in the 1970’s. They have created a one square mile around the old reef site, the Casino Rubble and plan to deploy materials on top of that old site to minimize the subsidence of the new materials. What we have is a beginning of an application we can submit to the State of Florida and the Army Corp of Engineers. If we stay out beyond that magical one nautical mile line, inside of which is the Gulf Sturgeon Critical Habitat, then we will have to have an informal consultation under the endangered species act. This will reduce our time in getting Federal permits. It is roughly a mile square and would take us a decade to fill this area out.

Because the reef site is 8 miles from the east of Pensacola pass. Most power boats would run to the Russian Freighter from the pass. With kayaks launching from the Pensacola beach it will reduce user conflicts from power boats. It is a previously used site so it would be an easy review and we could get a State permit in three months. Army Corp of Engineers will take longer, and sets our time line. Robert Turpin would like to get our permit application submitted as quickly as possible. 

*William Myrick made a motion to allow Robert Turpin to proceed with the permit applications for this Casino Reef Site. Walt Woodfin seconded the motion with all in favor and no one opposed.*
Robert Turpin asked that we name this reef site, the Casino Reef Site for consistency when we are talking about this area. Then there will be different artificial reef sites deployed within this 1 square mile site. 

*Gulf** Breeze Fishing Bridge** Rubble*
They have made three deployments of the Gulf Breeze Fishing Bridge rubble in the center of the site. Approximately 3,000 tons have been delivered. The coordinates are
*30º 17.467’ N 87 º 13.773’ W. *This area is about ½ mile west of the three barges. The water depth is approximately 50 feet. One of the piles comes up 15 ft off the bottom, most come up around 5 to 7 ft off the bottom. The Army Corp of Engineers gave us a modification to the reef permit and gave us 8 more feet of vertical reef height which gives us up to 16 ft. The city of Gulf Breeze named this reef, the *Lane Gilchrist Reef* who was a former Mayor of Gulf Breeze that passed away in 2009. The goal is to have something that is similar to three mile bridge rubble in LAARS. Robert spoke about re-nourishing the three barges with some of the pilings to extend the life of the three barges. 

*Capt. Bob Quarles Reef; Bay Reef #1*
*Eilene Beard* asked if some of the material from the bridge rubble was going to be used for the sound reefs. Robert stated that the materials are loaded on the barge for the sound reefs. After it gets deployed, we have to see how it is sitting on the bottom because the vertical height is only 6- 7 ft for this area and compliance has to be maintained with the permits. Whatever we can do, we will do. 


*Gulf Snorkeling Reef*
Dave Walter still has his vessel in the shipyard. We are first on his list. 


*Bay Snorkeling Reef *
We have the State permit from DEP and we are awaiting the Army Corp of Engineers permit.

*Oriskany Monitoring Program*
We have executed the contracts for the Oriskany Monitoring contract.
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Whack 'um


http://www.sea-space.com


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## Team Bloody Waters (Feb 24, 2009)

Yeah I was at the marine resources meeting back in January when he got approval to begin the permitting process for the casino site. That is gonna be a great place to drop materials! I used to fish the old casino reef 10-12 yrs ago and did great. Thanks for posting the info!


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