A REEF TO CALL HOME
Sea creatures get new ‘apartments’ off Jupiter
PALM BEACH GARDENS — The countless critters that dwell in the shallow waters around the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse got three new mini-apartments to call home recently, thanks to Palm Beach State College Professor Jessica Miles and her crew.
They went to work just before dawn one morning, preparing to dive 12 feet to the sea floor, where they bolted down three 20-pound structures made to mimic coral reefs.
They’re participating in a global study of biodiversity. Miles calls her research the Reef Hope Project. The state of coral is dire, she said.
Anchor damage, snorkelers who accidentally kick the reefs, ocean warming, coral bleaching and more carbon dioxide absorbed into the ocean all threaten coral,
Miles said.
“I can’t emphasize enough how much we need to do more with the issue of climate change and to recognize the value of reefs, because when we have storms come through, it protects us and lessens inland flooding,” she said.
Coral reefs are the foundation of the food chain, and much of the local economy depends on
fishing and tourism, she said.
People need to curb carbon dioxide emissions and improve the quality of water that’s been hurt by runoff and other pollutants, Miles said.
“We can’t just sit back and hope that Mother Nature will be able to get healthy on her own,” she said.
For now, artificial reefs are sustaining fish popula- tions and adding new niches — but protection of natural reefs is vital, Miles said.
Hundreds of students at Palm Beach State College’s Palm Beach Gardens campus will be involved by the time her research project is finished, she said.
Anchoring the reefs
Engineering students assembled the structures for her. Two students, a rescue diver and an adjunct profes- sor who captained the boat joined her on a Nov. 3 dive. Other students took water samples and photographs.
Freshman Stephanie Rochefort said she lived for two years in Australia and visited the Great Barrier Reef, so the research proj- ect appealed to her.
“She caught my interest and sold me on it, and so far, it’s been great,” Roche- fort said.
Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse Outstanding Natural Area staff determined the place- ment of the reef modules and prepared the locations.
At the first spot on the south side of the lighthouse, Miles fought a raging current that threatened to tear away one of her swim fins and caused her to drop the module. The rescue diver, the father of one of her stu- dents, recovered it.
She was able to anchor it to a cement block with four steel legs that penetrated 18 inches into the sediment. The module, a square frame of stacked PVC plates, will stay submerged for about three years. That will give marine life such as coral and oysters a chance to attach and flourish.
The scientists fastened the second structure in a shallower location on the east side of the lighthouse in a matter of minutes. They had eight- to 10-foot visibility, and there was no strong current, so they could work with both hands, Miles said.
Natural area staff paddled out to the mangrove lagoon with the third module on a makeshift raft between two paddleboards. Miles and her team sank the module on the north side of Beach Road, east of the lighthouse, a safe distance from the mangroves and sea grass beds.
Tracking growth
Three years from now, they will haul up the fish houses — autonomous reef monitoring structures, as they’re formally known — to study the occupants.
Biotechnology students will do genetic testing on the species they can’t visually identify and share the results with the Smithsonian Global Marine Biodiversity Project and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s coral reef monitoring program, Miles said.
Miles and her students track the location of each structure via GPS. Scientists around the world use the same monitoring systems so they can compare which environments are most attractive to different species of marine life.
Miles previously deployed two other modules 50 to 60 feet deep near the Andrew “Red” Harris Foundation reef about 11/2 miles from the Jupiter Inlet.
Miles attached five tiles made of various materials to that reef. They’ll stay under the sea for about a year. Then she’ll examine them under a microscope to determine which material supports the most coral growth.
Recreational divers can also participate; the Andrew “Red” Harris Reef structures each have a unique number tag, so divers can provide information and photographs to help scientists understand how the artifi- cial reef changes through time, she said.
The college’s Environmen- tal Science Department staff and students will also ana- lyze data that the Palm Beach County Reef Research Team has collected from all the natural and artificial reefs in the county since 1991, Miles said.
The Geographic Information Systems class is work- ing on mapping the Reef Hope Project, producing data-driven maps that show the research results, she said.
Eventually, Miles wants to work with engineering technology to add electri- cal stimulation to some of her modules. Corals and oysters tend to settle faster and grow faster near low voltage electricity, she said.
Art and environmental students will work with local organizations to create “EcoArt,” functional art that benefits the environmen- tal. They will design an arti- ficial reef that adds marine habitat and inspires people to care more about the environment, Miles said.