New artificial reef attracts snorkelers

SINGER ISLAND, FL  --  If snorkeling is on your summer list of "fun things to do"... you may be in for a pleasant surprise!

A new artificial reef is being added to make your next "plunge" even better.

Huge boulders are being sunk right off Singer Island.

Brock Stanaland is the Senior Environmental Analyst for the Department of Environment Resource Management.  "We build these reefs and we build them hoping to approximate natural reef, natural hard bottom and the fish will come to it and take up residence here just like they would on the natural hard bottom areas."

The new artificial reef is a little bigger than a football field and made up of giant boulders from the Naples area.

This helps replace natural hard bottom that's been covered up by beach renourishment projects in the county.

The site at the Riviera Municipal Beach has been chosen because of the rocky bottom just under the sand. That will prevent the huge boulders from sinking in the sand and disappearing.

Jim Welch, a tourist says "this is really nice out here, they didn't have this here last year it's all new and it's really starting to grow a lot of bigger fish, hopefully brings in some bigger fish eventually it's very nice, nice to have this... here."

Although some people feel it’ll be a paradise for snorkelers, others feel it needs to be closely monitored for environmental impact.

Greg Lyon, the co-chair of the Surfrider Foundation says "the Surfrider Foundation is closely monitoring the success of this reef, we have something of a wait and see attitude to see its long term impact on wildlife as well as sand transfer and erosion."

Sanaland rebuts: "We're hoping we don’t get either a scour or a buildup of sand in the area as a result of what we're building and we shouldn’t according to the engineering models."

Only time will tell, but for now, it's a new place for water lovers to check out the wildlife right off the sand, with just a snorkel and mask.

Another mitigation project is set to start this summer just south of the Boynton Inlet. Total cost of the two projects is just over 2 million dollars.