Rocky reef created off Boca

Plop by massive plop, 530 tons of boulders give divers a new option

Boat Capt. Carman Vare looked on as each massive rock hit the surface, making white water shoot up 15 feet. He imitated the spectacle, shouting “ka-pshhhhh!”

The captain was part of a team dropping 530 tons of white rocks from a barge into Wednesday’s choppy seas, sinking them 35 feet to create an artificial reef near the Boca Raton Inlet.

The sinking marked the latest amenity added to the waters off Palm Beach County, a coast lush with growth from more than 150 artificial reefs already there. Once all was done, the rocks formed two 15-foot piles underwater.

A diversity of fish, including grouper and snapper, raise their juveniles close to shore at reefs like this one, said Jena McNeal, Palm Beach County’s artificial reef coordinator. It’s also less than a half-mile from the beach, making it easily accessible to divers.

“Personally, it’s one of my favorite spots to dive,” McNeal said of these types of reefs created close to shore. “It’s great because it’s shallow and easy

to dive at. It’s also where you see the most different kinds of fish and the most overall number.”

Workers began at 10:30 a.m. and for two hours put the rocks in the water.

McNeal and her team took pleasure in watching from a first-row perspective on their boat. She likened it to children casting stones into the water at the beach. But “it’s the adult version,” she joked.

The most exciting part for McNeal will be in a year when she returns to dive and visit the fish that will call the new reef home, she said.

The reef cost $120,000 total for materials and deployment. Half of that comes from a grant given by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and the other half is from the fee boaters pay to register their vessels, McNeal said.

The rocks were quarried near Lake Okeechobee, and the county enlisted the help of a barge to bring the rocks south.

But the barge from Fort Pierce arrived an hour later than scheduled, because of tough sea conditions. Waves were expected to be 2 to 3 feet but instead were 5 to 7. It took another hour and a half to anchor the barge and set up buoys.

The last artificial reef deployed in Palm Beach County was in Lake Worth Lagoon last month from the concrete materials used during the Southern Boulevard Bridge construction.

The nearest artificial reef, less than a mile south of the new reef ’s planned location, features two wrecked ships, the Sea Emperor and United Caribbean, as well as other limestone reefs.

McNeal said artificial reefs constructed near the coast make up for habitat that is lost when sand washes over natural reefs from beach nourishment projects.

Projects like this take a while to plan, she said.

“It’s fulfilling,” she said of watching the reef ’s creation. “It’s been in the planning process for a year a half, and there’s a satisfaction seeing it in person and not on paper.”

MIKE STOCKER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Limestone rocks from a quarry near Lake Okeechobee were dropped less than half a mile off the Boca Raton Inlet.

MIKE STOCKER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER The limestone boulders are dropped 35 feet deep, forming two 15-foot piles to make South Florida’s latest artificial reef.