Local students deploy artificial reefs after three month challenge
On May 8, a program sponsored by the Bay County Artificial Reef Association, the University of Florida IFAS Extension, Eastern Shipbuilding Group and some local schools with welding programs.
Students at Wewahitchka and Port St. Joe high schools, Haney Technical College and Chipola College participated in the second annual Eastern Shipbuilding Group Coastline Initiative.
It's a one-of-a-kind competition that challenges students from local schools to design and build innovative artificial reefs.
Eastern Shipbuilding Group challenges students to build artificial reefs
Eastern Shipbuilding Group donated the scrap material and equipment, and helped approve the plans for the three month reef project.
On Thursday, the Bay County Artificial Reef Association took the four reefs out to a permitted zone, about 15 to 28 miles offshore from Panama City.
They were carefully lowered to the bottom of the gulf, between 100-140 feet deep.
They'll become habitats for snapper, grouper, amberjack, trigger fish and many other marine life species.
Getting the reefs to the bottom took some skill and coordination among the crew members. There are a lot of guidelines they had to follow.
The reefs had to be out of a certain material and the crew could not leave any ropes or debris on them.
'Dang, it broke easy, didn't it. We tried to right the reef and as you can see, all our twine come back with what we were doing. So, zero line is left on the reef,' Bay County Artificial Reef Association B.J. Burkett said.
Anyone who wants to dive or fish off the reefs will have to wait, as the Bay County Artificial Reef Association wants to make sure they have time to establish marine life.
They'll post the coordinates publicly in about a year.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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