Artificial reefs proposed for Narragansett Bay

FIRST OF ITS KIND: A $750,000 project could bring artificial reef modules, similar to the one shown above, near Antigua, to Narragansett Bay as soon as next spring. / COURTESY REEF BALL FOUNDATION
FIRST OF ITS KIND: A $750,000 project could bring artificial reef modules, similar to the one shown above, near Antigua, to Narragansett Bay as soon as next spring. / COURTESY REEF BALL FOUNDATION

As soon as this coming spring, the R.I. Department of Environmental Management could oversee the construction and deployment of three artificial reefs in Narragansett Bay.
The reefs will be used as a scientific study – to evaluate the benefits of the new habitat on juvenile fish, and to try and measure if the reefs increase fish populations.
The project, discussed Oct. 7 at a Rhode Island Marine Fisheries Council public hearing, is still in the early phases and the public will have more chances to weigh in. Yet to be decided is where to put the reefs. Once that is nailed down, the permitting process with the Coast Guard, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Coastal Resource Management Council will begin.
The DEM, which was awarded a $536,500 federal sport-fish restoration grant to make the work possible, has brought on the Rhode Island Nature Conservancy as a subcontractor. The Nature Conservancy is not only helping with the fieldwork and science of the project, they are responsible for raising the 25 percent local match of the federal grant. The total value of the overall project is $750,000.
“This is the first of its kind for Rhode Island,” said John Torgan, director of oceans and coastal conservation for the Rhode Island Nature Conservancy. “It’ll be the first artificial reef of this scale for our state. We’re pretty excited about it.”
The study wants to imitate as closely as possible a Rhode Island marine-boulder field. A barge will set with a crane between 800 to 1,200 cement structures that look like boulders. They are called modules. The modules will be full of holes and the center will be hollow. This will give marine animals plenty of places to hide. They will be anywhere from 2-feet to 4-feet high. Each module will be set on the bottom, one right next to the other, in 30 feet to 50 feet of water. Each reef site will be one-quarter acre in size and contain approximately 400 individual modules. Other states have been setting man-made structures onto the sea floor for decades. But Rhode Island is in its infancy with an artificial-reef program.
“We’re looking to see what the benefits are of placing these reefs in areas that we think have a low productivity. Then we hope to see that productivity increase,” said Torgan.
Site selection is key and is still ongoing. The proposed areas are along the Portsmouth shoreline, one below Melville Pier near Dyer Island and Prudence Island and the other just above Melville. The third is proposed to go just inside the Mount Hope Bridge.
“I’m all for it just as long as guys don’t get shut out,” said Jeff Grant, a Narragansett Bay commercial fisherman. “They say no lobster gear or conch gear can go in the reef areas. But that whole side of the bay is conch bottom. All I want to see is open communication between the DEM and all users, so guys don’t get shut out of the process.”
The study is for five years. No one is quite sure what will happen to the reefs once the study is over – will they open to commercial lobster and conch fishing? “I sure don’t see them taking them out afterward,” Grant said. “So we want to keep the dialogue open now to make sure all stakeholders get heard.”
The reefs will become – even though it is not the mission of the study – recreational fishing havens. Boats will visit them and try for blackfish, striped bass, sea bass and scup.
“It’ll take a few years for the reefs to become potent habitat,” said Bryan Oakley, long-time Newport angler and a coastal geologist. “The modules will need to be colonized by the sponges and anemones and seaweeds. Then the fish will find them.”
Stephen Medeiros, president of the Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association, has been behind Rhode Island developing an artificial reef plan for years. “No matter if fishing pressure removes some fish, I’m positive that the reef will have a benefit.” •

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