Guide, web app map out state’s artificial reefs

Published 7:23 pm Friday, August 26, 2016

Interactive maps of artificial reefs are now available to those who love to fish North Carolina waters.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality released the 131-page printed color guide to fishing the state’s artificial reefs and announced the corresponding online version last week. Printed on waterproof paper, the printed guide provides detailed information about each of the state’s 62 reefs, including diagrams of each site showing all reef material, GPS coordinates and material deployment dates, according to a DEQ press release. The new edition represents 20 years worth of new reefs and enhancements to old ones.

“They have actually only been printed one time previously,” said Amy Comer, a biologist with the habitat and enhancement section of North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries. “The last time they were printed, everything was in Loran units and that was in 1995.”

The full update includes replacing the Loran units with GPS, as well as visually imaging each reef with side-scan sonar imagery, which creates a picture of the ocean floor, for each reef. The web app also includes mapping tools for measuring distance, searching and custom printing.

In the mid-1970s, the state stepped in to oversee the creation of artificial reefs that had primarily been created by independent artificial reef associations that did their own fundraising to sink a vessel or other object.

“Since then, anyone interested in making an artificial reef works with us at the state,” Comer said.

In recent years, funding for the program has become an issue, so the state is relying on artificial reef associations, who submit proposals for grants through the North Carolina Coastal Recreational Fishing License Grant Program, Comer said.

The new guides and web application are funded through a $176,000 award from the grant progam, the release stated.

North Carolina’s artificial reefs are made from a variety of sources: sunken vessels, aircraft, train boxcars, old bridges and more. The Pamlico River’s version, AR-291, an artificial reef located near Bayview, is made of both tubular and rounded reef-like concrete forms, enhanced in the past five years as replacement for an older artificial reef made of tires. The reefs are built to promote aquatic life in areas with featureless bottom, which supports fish populations, as well as creates fishing and diving opportunities, according to the press release.

“We’re just excited to get this information out,” Comer said. “We know people love to use artificial reefs and we just want to make sure people know where they are.”

The printed guides are available for free at the Division of Marine Fisheries’ Headquarters in Morehead City and at other division offices in Wilmington, Washington, Elizabeth City and Manteo. Anyone may pick a book up between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, though distribution is limited to one book per person.

The online interactive reef guide can be found at: portal.ncdenr.org/web/mf/artificial-reefs-program.