People, notoriously, stretch the truth in fishing stories. A fisherman’s catch is always the biggest ever seen, and “the one that got away” would have shattered records. However, one fishing story is completely factual: Sport Fish Restoration funds drive the success of the Georgia Coastal Resources Division’s Artificial Reef Program. 

Administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Sport Fish Restoration (SFR) Program takes money generated from taxes on fishing tackle and boat fuel and apportions it to the states. States use these funds to build boat ramps and docks or to complete projects that promote fishing opportunities. 

For the last 50 years, Coastal Resources Division (CRD) has fully utilized SFR grants to promote offshore fishing and oyster harvesting through the creation of artificial reefs.

“If you were to go to a random location in Georgia and dive into the water, you would find a pretty sandy bottom; not a lot of biodiversity,” explains Cameron Brinton, a marine biologist with CRD. “When these artificial reefs are established, you go from practically nothing there to a very vibrant reef community.”

In other words: where once there were no fish, there are now schools of fish, creating prime fishing opportunities!

When creating an artificial reef, CRD first needs a solid foundation. 

“We need lots of materials of opportunity,” explains Brinton. “We’re looking for things that are cheap to acquire, easy to get out to the reefs, something that is big enough to stay in place, will last long in salt water, and doesn’t have any pollutants or hazards.”

Concrete blocks and old tugboats are some of the typical building materials for reef foundations. 

Coastal Resources acquires their reef building blocks in several ways. Sometimes, individuals want old boats taken off their hands, so they donate them. Other times, the Division purchases vessels at scrap value. Occasionally, a ship will be abandoned at a marina. The marina operator files a salvage claim, declares the vessel abandoned, and then passes it along to CRD.

Before they can sink items to the ocean floor, pollutants and hazardous materials must be removed. This typically involves taking out fuel tanks, engines, and hydraulic lines from a ship and flushing the systems clean. Ladders, rails, and antennae are also removed so fishing lines can’t get stuck and entangle sea turtles or other marine life. To protect divers, CRD welds open all doors, windows, and hatches, preventing anyone from getting trapped inside.

Once the ship is prepared, a barge takes it offshore to be sunk. CRD then steps back to let nature take its course. 

The goal is to drop one ship a year, but Coastal Resources often blows that goal out of the water. Last year, they had eight sinking events. Some of these outings involved sinking a single vessel. Other times, a barge was taken out to offload multiple things. One of these barges boasted hundreds of tons of concrete blocks and two old railcars. 

“The railcars were a very different experience compared to the ships,” said Brinton. 

Typically, the ships that CRD drops into the water are 50 to 70 years old. They often don’t know what material the vessel and its various components are made of, so they must determine what needs to be stripped and what can remain.

“The railcars had a manual about an inch thick that detailed where every single part came from, what it is, and what it’s made of.” recalls Brinton. “It made it really easy to determine what could stay and what had to go before the car was dropped.”

While the term “artificial” may imply these reefs are fake, they are anything but. Calling it a man-made reef wouldn’t be technically correct either. The only “artificial” part of these reefs is the foundation. 

“Until you back up and see the outline that this was a ship, it’s pretty indistinguishable from the natural habitat,” says Brinton.

CRD doesn’t establish the corals, sponges, barnacles, and other marine life that form a thriving reef community. But they do monitor the status of all their reefs. 

Using side-scan sonar, which creates images of the ocean floor, state biologists generate maps and GPS coordinates to provide anglers with accurate information about reef locations. They also study the benefits some of the ships and railcars provide. 

The ocean floor is ever-changing, and so too are the reefs. When a reef no longer produces quality habitat and provides no benefit, CRD removes it from their list of reefs they maintain to inform fishermen of the available reefs they can fish. Then, CRD will drop another ship in the same area to replace the lost reef. 

Often, Coastal Resources clusters the dropped ships together, maintaining some buffer to avoid damaging the already established corals and ecosystems. 

They strive to string together lines of items so that anglers can trawl easily. In other areas, they arrange reefs in circular clusters, allowing bottom fishers access to multiple spots with minimal effort.

Currently, state biologists monitor 30 different reefs. These reefs total an area of 1.8 million square feet (1.69 square kilometers) - the equivalent of just over 31 football fields of reef.

“It builds up over time. We’re always adding stuff to the reefs,” says Brinton.

With reefs as close as 2.5 miles offshore to as far as 80 miles, there are opportunities for every angler.

Acquiring the materials, getting them reef-ready, trucking them to a barge, and then taking them to sea…. it all costs a lot of money. Thankfully, CRD benefits from SFR dollars.

“We would really struggle to do any of this work without Sport Fish Restoration Funds,” Brinton explains. 

SFR funds contribute to salaries, operating expenses, and the transportation of reef materials to the water. 

“We can get money and donations to buy a ship if we need to, but it’s hard to sell someone on keeping the lights on or putting gas in a vehicle,” says Brinton. “SFR really comes through for us and makes the whole effort possible.”

Looking to the future, CRD hopes to continue leveraging SFR grants to better monitor the reefs and the species they support.