# New Artificial Reefs off Okaloosa Island



## chasing tail (Oct 14, 2015)

Hey I found this cool article about two new reefs off of Okaloosa Island. See more in this article I found:

http://oneworldtwofeet.com/2015/11/08/creating-an-artificial-reef-off-the-emerald-coast/


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## TONER (Mar 25, 2008)

Cool but no coordinates


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## T8r Tot (Sep 9, 2015)

I'm pretty sure it's the same guys I passed on my way back in last Saturday. you couldn't miss them as they were about 2 miles due south maybe a little SW of the east pass CB buoy. approximate. had the tug and a couple of bystander boats hanging around as I passed.
I might try to hunt the numbers later but it shouldn't be too hard to find on a decent bottom machine.


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## Addict'd (May 17, 2009)

I saw them too but had no idea what they were doing so stayed away. Would like to see more of this rubble deployed and the coordinates published


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## snake 166 (Oct 2, 2007)

Big chunks of concrete don't make good reef material. Reef fish need holes to hid from predators and complex surface structure for the prey fish to shelter.


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## Addict'd (May 17, 2009)

if there's enough of it, it makes awesome reefs! Dive the bridge rubble and start counting how many snapper and grouper you see, you'll lose count fast


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## mirage2521 (Apr 22, 2009)

snake 166 said:


> Big chunks of concrete don't make good reef material. Reef fish need holes to hid from predators and complex surface structure for the prey fish to shelter.


You must not dive. I can show you some spots I personally made with 4'x4' cubes of concrete that are amazing.


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## snake 166 (Oct 2, 2007)

I do not dive but I would like to see your concrete cubes (photos) to see how they are arranged. In my experience with concrete pilings, they need to be crossed or stacked to create cavities otherwise, they will eventually bury up and provide no refuge.

Bill Lindberg, fishery biologist, tried various designs of concrete cubes. The ones with cavities held many more gags than solid cubes.


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## mirage2521 (Apr 22, 2009)

I am sure the cavities held more, these are solid cubes and they were not arranged. They (27 of them) were dumped from the back of a boat one at the time with a crane. They now look like a pile of kids blocks that were knocked over but they hold a TON of fish.


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## kanaka (Oct 3, 2007)

New reefs Okaloosa county

The US Army Corps of Engineers has granted the Okaloosa Board of County Commissioners permits for four artificial reef deployment areas.
Deployment areas are located in state waters west of Destin Pass. Each deployment area is 40 acres in size and located 2 to 3 miles offshore. Each deployment area will eventually contain nine individual reefs, and construction begins this summer.
Materials used for the construction of the reefs have been donated by the Air Force Research Laboratory at Eglin Air Force Base, Mid-Bay Bridge Authority and the City of Fort Walton Beach. Materials include massive concrete pieces of various sizes, concrete culverts, bridge pilings and pre-fabricated reef modules.
Funding for the construction of the reefs will be provided by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) Program and the Tourist Development Department. The deployment areas are defined with the following corner locations:


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## Boboe (Feb 4, 2013)

Those will make fish fast, but they'll get the living shit pounded out of them.


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## kanaka (Oct 3, 2007)

Then you'll have educated fish there with uneducated anglers after them.


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## Dive1 (May 16, 2015)

Can individuals make and set their own fish reefs? Legally that is....


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## kanaka (Oct 3, 2007)

Yep

http://www.pensacolafishingforum.com/f25/chicken-coops-sale-reefs-566345/


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## JFG (Jul 4, 2010)

The Okaloosa County just posted the numbers for the Eglin target cement. Mac's reef 30 21.391 / 86 32.876 and 30 21.141 / 86 36.874


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