Artifical reefs for Moreton Bay

[Lucky_Phill]

HI all, with the impending Green Zones about to be implemented in Moreton Bay and the Minister stating he will create artificial reefs I was hoping there is some ‘ informed ‘ folks here that can shed light on the best possible material to create these reefs with. The Minister stated in a local paper that he intended to build these out of concrete. As far as I am aware ( talking to divers and others ) concrete is NOT a good choice.

Obviously things like old battle ships etc create great dive sights and do attract marine growth which in turn attract marine fish species of all types, but this may not be possible or even “ EPA “ approved !!!

There has been Government funded artificial reefs created elsewhere, like Botany Bay, and it would be interesting to see not only what they are made from, but also the results in terms of material suitability, marine growth and fish species population that has occurred since it’s inception.

On a different tac, do we call these Artificial Reefs ( that would suggest divers being allowed to ‘ exploit ‘ them, or are they to be FADs ( Fish Attracting Devices ). Although I do not have issues with divers, we must remember that they have had this 30mtr exclusion zone for years that they have used to their advantage many times and things like “ The Brisbane “ being sunk off the sunnie coast and being a NO FISHING ZONE.. !!!!! Do we also make these sites a non-commercial site as well, after all the Green Zones are taking away a large proportion of the recreational fishos targeted areas.

IMO< a FAD is what is needed and if that takes the shape of a large structure or a series of structures, then that is a good thing. Not a FAD as per the offshore devices.

To sum this up, I am after info for artifical reefs inside Moreton Bay , not forgetting the green zones will be implemented in offshore waters.

Where these reefs are placed will be up to the EPA or an EPA appointed steering committee, which will hopefully be made up of independent marine scientists, major stake holders and other qualified persons.

Let’s get some good info coming in with serious suggestions, unlike someone I talked to the other day who suggested that we start the artificials with “ solicitors, used car salesmen and telemarketers “ !!!!!!



Cheers Phill

[Reel Magic]

Old CC busses and trains etc.

Ryan.

[tunaticer]

I was talking to one of our clients last week about a "new" concrete about to hit the market here in Australia. It's base does not use cement or lime but rather uses fly ash from power stations. Aparently this was developed by Russia post WW2 when they ran out of cement and had to develop a replacement building material because they could not buy from overseas due to sanctions.
Anyway, this "concrete" is more stable than lime based concretes and secretes no CO2 or other chemicals into the environment like normal concrete does. Instead of a calcium based reaction as is with cement (lime) based concretes, this one is based on silica (basically a sand) reaction.

This new material may or may not be suitable for artificial reefs but it is definitely worth investigating.

I still belive that the local councils around the country could all be stockpiling large concrete pipes they are continually replacing in thier upgrades etc and donating them to artificial reef organizations instead of sending hundreds of them to landfill every year. These pipes are already aged and are more suitable to the reefs than new concrete.

Another good source of reef material would be discarded concrete agitiator barrels we see on the backs of trucks. They generally have lots of concrete buildup inside them and what is left of the steel would most likely rust away in 5 years or so leaving what resembles a periwinkle shell that has been worn away in the sand leaving twin spirals of concrete with marine growth on them. These are generally not recycled as there is minimal steel remaining and the concrete is a problem with steel recycling. The average age of an agitator is about 5-7 years before it needs replacing. That is a lot of agitator bowls.

Jack.

[seatime]

First thing they will need to do is allocate more money for the proposal. Last I heard they were allocating $1million, that amount will quickly be eaten up by the likes of RIS's & EIS's. $300K has been allocated to build a boat ramp at Amity, how far will $1mill go on an Arty? a reef the size of a 3 lane ramp?

The fly ash concrete idea sounds positve, they've been adding fly ash to concrete for years as a filler, so it's proven to work, there's plenty of it, and it's cheap.
The Reef Ball structures used down South are a proven shape too, similar to the agitator bowl shape.
Clean rock may be acceptable to the EPA, but very expensive to quarry and transport.

[Lucky_Phill]

Thanks for the quick reply guys, all good info. Keep it coming.

Yes, gelsec, the $1 mill bandied around by Minister MacNamara will not go far at all and will probably be eaten up by paperwork. That $1 mill is nothing compared to the hundreds of mill that will be claimed under the ' compo ' system for displaced users of Moreton Bay. Any funds spent of artificials will be quickly gained back from the flow on effect of recreational fishing expenditure ( taxes ).

Cheers Phill

[geeffa]

this same subject has been discused over a beer or three many times over the years and i totally think it,s the best idea that the old adgy bowls are used as a artificial reef. good thinking. it would provide a good habitat for a lot of species of fish . i myself think that at lest 2or3 more reefs cauld be made in the northern part of the bay.iwould like to hear other peoples opinion on were they would put them. cheers

[3rd degree]

Have heard reports the reef balls used down south have been reasonably successfull. I think they were made of terracotta.


Cheers

Jim

[alleycat]

I believe concrete pipes and besser blocks would be great, old bricks from building sites as well, this material could be spread over large areas .

[Nico.d.R]

I have seen a doco on some island that killed all there reef by dinamite fishing . The locals had a scientist help them out to rebuild there reef . They used steel mesh ( concrete mesh ) and shaped it into big spheres , tubes and domes and ran a small current to them from the beach . The current they put through it takes minerals from the water and turns the frame into limestone which makes the frame grow from 10mm theres were already about 100-150mm then they found bits of living coral and stuck them to the frame and they found that running a current into coral can make it grow 20 times quicker , but it wouldnt grow as strong so they make it grow 5 times quicker so it is stronger . It regrew there reef in a couple of years . I have been thinking we could do similar to make FADs and if set up right it would not cost much to make . Instead of running power from the main land as it would be to far we could mark the FADs with a bouy and have a solar panel in it and some batteries and use that power to run down to the frames , once the frames are big enough take the bouy away and start the next reef with it . With out coral on it the frames will still allow lots of different speices to breed and live in and around them . Im guessing that making them this way it would not cost much at all to create a decent sized FAD or arti .

[SummerTrance]

Just out of interest..... How long would it take after the creating of an artificial reef, for it to be a viable fishing location?

[tunaticer]

Well, a tree that has fallen into a river becomes host and home to fish within days so I presume a concrete based reef will become populated within a month as long as it is placed in an area that has some form of fish traffic. There is no point placing a reef in a location that does not have fish somewhere near it so they can find it.

There is a large tractor tyre on the inside of Moreton island in about 12 feet of water. It is resting on stumps to keep it off the sand and has been there for many years now. It gets visited by fish regularly yet it holds few around it for longer than a few minutes. The point is the reef must also be more than habitat for the fish, it must be encouraging an ecosystem of its own by creating lots of holes and structure to host a lot of smaller sea life before it can support larger fish.

Jack.

[garman1]

My Brother read an article in an Adelaide paper of a group of fishermen towing a VW, supported on big inner tubes out into the bay, to create their own little spot X er......Artificial reef.....

Local water police spotted them and politely got them to tow it back from where it came, followed by some paperwork too no doubt.

Garry

[Oh Gee]

The agitator bowl idea must be common. I was up in Bundy over easter and saw the Cochrane Artificial people have half a dozen or more bowls sitting in their staging area.

g

[sharkymark2]

Stainless steel wash tubs hmmmmmmmm sounds good to me . Little bit of ingenuity . Before anybody starts to get toey I reckon we should get the same 12 monthly car inspections as down south. That way we will get all of those oil dripping bay polluting vehicles off the road. Have you noticed how little sea grass we have now and how instead of being bright green its a very drab green.? All the greenies want to reserve areas of the bay; why not start with the biggest bay killer out...... pollution. ( not from nice stainless steel wash tubs .

[BrewGuru]

It would be nice to have some sunken out of service Navy vessels as AR's
I believe the stripping of all potential polluting materials and decomissioning of all oil lines, hydraulic pumps, oil tanks, fuel residue is at a prohibitive costs