| 21 July 2010
(Click Image To Enlarge) Cobia caught on one of St.Lucie County's artificial reefs
Can Artificial Reefs contribute to Fishery Management?
James Oppenborn is St. Lucie County's Coastal Resources Supervisor and the recipient of Snook Foundation's 2009 Excellence in Habitat Restoration Award, in recognition of his work deploying and monitoring artificial and oyster shell reefs in Indian River Lagoon. Here are some of his results and thoughts going forward.
In 5 years managing the St. Lucie County Artificial Reef Program I have been careful to collect data for use in science which shows the importance of artificial reefs to both fish stocks and the people who harvest them.
Note from the Snook Foundation: If you have been a reader of this website for long, you probably know where we stand on Inshore Fishery Management: More important than slot and bag limits, much more important than hatchery production, Juvenile and Adult Fish Habitats are essential for a robust inshore fishery. So what role can artificial reefs play in essential habitat creation or restoration?
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Artificial reefs serve as destinations for large schools of adult snook, grouper and other gamefish. Photo: Adult snook on an Artificial Reef in St. Lucie County (photo: Jim Oppenborn)
An Ecosystem Approach
Through our monitoring efforts, we have documented at least 99 species of fish on our artificial reefs, including 7 species of baitfish, sportfish such as snook, 4 species of cartilaginous fishes, and 23 species in the South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council’s Snapper-Grouper Complex, and 2 'listed' species.St. Lucie County has made a concerted effort to produce ecosystem effects with its artificial reef system rather than concentrate on single species management.
Due to the importance of inshore-offshore fish movements, the County has also initiated restoration of oyster reefs in the Indian River Lagoon, creating not only oyster reef habitat, but also possibly helping to restore adjacent seagrass beds as well.
(Click Image To Enlarge) Juvenile Red Snapper, Snowy Grouper and Scamp have been found in the artificial reef surveys. Photo: Jim Oppenborn
Habitat for Juveniles as well as Adult Fish
We have documented use of our artificial reefs by many juvenile fishes such as snowy grouper, scamp, and red snapper and these findings suggest that artificial reefs are much more than an aggregating device that can be used to overharvest fish stocks, as some would suggest.
Additionally, two types of seagrass have been spotted growing between oyster shell reef sites; these grasses are known to harbor juvenile Red Drum, Trout and other gamefish.
These natural resource benefits have not come at the expense of regional watermen who visit St. Lucie County waters from around the State and Nation. While our observations are helpful in formulating scientific hypotheses, they alone do not constitute 'good science.' Hopefully that science will result from the fishery management studies or similar public mandates.
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Halophila (genus includes Johnson's Sea grass) growing in sand accumulation between reef lines
Passive Fisheries Reserves: Less Regulation, Better Results?
Going forward, we hope to set up Passive Fisheries Reserves on our artificial reef sites. These would be areas where harvest is limited by natural factors such as depth and current instead of by additional regulations. Several grant applications for deploying these projects have been made, and it's hoped that if the FCTA (Fishery Conservation Transition Act, S.3594) passes, some of the funding will be used to study Passive Fisheries Reserves effectiveness. In the future we hope to establish artificial reefs that might help to re-establish oculina varicosa corals either on our artifiical reef sites or on the Oculina Banks themselves.
James Oppenborn (right) receiving award for Excellence in Habitat Restoration, from Rick Roberts, Snook Foundation. Click photo for story.Supporters of our efforts to manage fish stocks in St. Lucie County through the use of habitat restoration to supplement size and bag limits, include the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Mr. Bob Herbst, The Southern Kingfish Association, the FishAmerica Foundation, the Snook Foundation, the Marine Industries Association of the Treasure Coast and TeenAnglers.
About the author
If any of you would like to learn more about St. Lucie County's artificial reefs program or to participate in Oyster Shell bagging or Reef Deployment, please contact James P. Oppenborn, St. Lucie County Coastal Resources Supervisor, Fort Pierce, FL 34982 phone 772 462 1713, or click here to read more.
