Buoys being placed on Breakers Reef in WPB

[KBeck]

Buoys placed on Breakers Reef

Buoys placed off The Breakers will help keep local reefs safe


By BILL DIPAOLO
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
PALM BEACH — High-fives went up this morning about 1,500 feet off The Breakers Hotel when officials attached the county's first boat to a floating beachball-sized mooring designed to protect the underwater reef from anchors.
"People are destroying what they should be saving," said Environmental Resource Management Environmental Analyst Janet Phipps, as the boat bobbed in two-foot swells. "Divers and fishermen can use the buoys instead of anchoring."

Anchors scar the ocean floor when they are dropped on reefs or dragged across the bottom, said Rocco Galletta, a diver for Industrial Divers Corp., the Fort Lauderdale company installing the buoys. He often finds three or four dozen anchors abandoned on the bottom in one day.
"Boaters heave and ho, and break the rope and leave the anchor. That rope flows back and forth with the current, scratching the bottom. It's nylon, so it can last hundreds of years," said Galletta.
When completed later this month, six buoys will be open at one time. Locations will be rotated to protect the reef.
Fewer anchors mean more sea fans and reef coverage, Erin McDivitt, marine habitat manager for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
"We'll see more fish, lobster, sea turtles and other reef-associated species," said McDivitt.
Vanishing and damaged buoys are a constant problem, with sometimes more than 10 disappearing in a month in Broward County, which has about 120 buoys. The reef off the Breakers was selected for the first Palm Beach County mooring spot because it is a popular diving location, said Phipps.
"Boaters can't toss in their anchors willy-nilly. They need to look for a sandy spot away from the reef. Or use the buoys," said Tom Twyford, president of the West Palm Beach Fishing Club.

 

[Scott L]

Buoys placed on Breakers Reef

Buoys placed off The Breakers will help keep local reefs safe


By BILL DIPAOLO
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
PALM BEACH — High-fives went up this morning about 1,500 feet off The Breakers Hotel when officials attached the county's first boat to a floating beachball-sized mooring designed to protect the underwater reef from anchors.
"People are destroying what they should be saving," said Environmental Resource Management Environmental Analyst Janet Phipps, as the boat bobbed in two-foot swells. "Divers and fishermen can use the buoys instead of anchoring."

Anchors scar the ocean floor when they are dropped on reefs or dragged across the bottom, said Rocco Galletta, a diver for Industrial Divers Corp., the Fort Lauderdale company installing the buoys. He often finds three or four dozen anchors abandoned on the bottom in one day.
"Boaters heave and ho, and break the rope and leave the anchor. That rope flows back and forth with the current, scratching the bottom. It's nylon, so it can last hundreds of years," said Galletta.
When completed later this month, six buoys will be open at one time. Locations will be rotated to protect the reef.
Fewer anchors mean more sea fans and reef coverage, Erin McDivitt, marine habitat manager for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
"We'll see more fish, lobster, sea turtles and other reef-associated species," said McDivitt.
Vanishing and damaged buoys are a constant problem, with sometimes more than 10 disappearing in a month in Broward County, which has about 120 buoys. The reef off the Breakers was selected for the first Palm Beach County mooring spot because it is a popular diving location, said Phipps.
"Boaters can't toss in their anchors willy-nilly. They need to look for a sandy spot away from the reef. Or use the buoys," said Tom Twyford, president of the West Palm Beach Fishing Club.

What idiot would drop an anchor on the Breakers's Reef?

 

[BUGBAGGER]

IMHO I think placing buoys at or near the Breaker's Reef was not well thought out and was possibly pushed forward by fisherman. Admittedly, I have been out of the area for about two years so there may have been talk of this in the diving community but I see little to no advantage for DIVERS. And I can't imagine had public hearings been held that the dive community would not have brought up some of these concerns.

1) Breakers is almost always done as a drift dive due to the prevailing currents so few if any dive boats would ever anchor or moor.

2) On the extremely rare occassion that there is no current most boats still prefer to do a live dive with the boat following the divers floats.

3) The anchors that I have seen being broken away or cut away at this reef or other reefs and wrecks nearby were always by fishing vessels who had no divers aboard to unfoul the anchor. Even these were almost always off the reef in the sand.

4) Buoys will increase the number of fishing vessels present with a depletion of the fish stock on and around this reef as it is too convenient and too small an area to concentrate fishing activty upon.

5) We will see an increase in conflict between dive boats operating as drift dive/live vessels and moored fishing vessels as the dive boats following their divers' floats will have to navigate around the moored vessels and their associated fishing lines.

6) The diveguides underwater who are carrying floats for safety and security will be at risk of the current crossing their float lines with the mooring lines or fishing lines of the moored vessels. In the past, many fisherman saw the risk or at least the lack of reward in creating this conflict and avoided the reef. With the moorings I fear more fisherman will take to the easy set up here.

For what it's worth I hope these an issues that I have not even thought of are considered and the moorings removed. Afterall, the area hardest hit by anchored boats is the 15-20 foot reef in the nearshore waters by the breakers not the 45-70 foot reef which is more frequently dived.

nough said.

 

[Scott L]

I really have not seen that much fishing traffic there in the past. The above post makes some interesting points. Not sure if the fishermen will know the moorings intended purpose as they do not read the Post or any other publications for that matter...

 

[DiveBee]

Bugbagger, excellent post. If anything it will mess with proper drift diving and make it dangerous. I have seldom seen a boat anchored on the reef, and I dive it often.

 

[djtimmy77]

If you look at the photo gallery on the website it appears that the buoys are on the shallower reef, not the 50 foot reef.

 

[KBeck]

Caption from photos in gallery:
"Industrial Divers Corporation dive boat readies for the job ahead at the Phil Foster Park boat ramp. Palm Beach County's Environmental Resource Management and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, with help from the contracted Industrial Divers Corporation, finished the installation of 6 mooring buoys along the shallow Breakers Reef offshore from the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach. A total of 12 hoop anchors are installed on the ocean bottom in depths from approximately 12 to 20 feet, onto which the buoys are secured. Only 6 buoys will be in place at a time, though, and they will be rotated annually amongst the different anchors in order to minimize impact to the reef. Boats are encouraged to tie off to the buoys instead of anchoring along the reef." (Jennifer Podis/The Palm Beach Post)

 

[Johnoly]

.... He often finds three or four dozen anchors abandoned on the bottom in one day.....

Gotta love those reporters

Congrats on the bouy's!!!

 

[soamelt]

I went out on Narcosis a few weeks ago and the captain and I were specifically talking about all the fishing boats that anchor on top of the Breakers reef. He pointed out a few that were anchored on the reef at that time and wrote down reg numbers in his book. He had a number of entries in there and states that he's called many of them in(don't recall to who - FWC or sheriff) even though no one does anyhing about it.

I'd say this is certainly a step in the right direction to protect what's left of the reef. Although, it's a classic example of too little, too late as it usually is with anything related to the environment.

 

[deepstops]

The deeper (50') section of Breakers is the same reef that was wire-dragged by a tugboat towing a barge back in November 2008. They never located the tugboat that was responsible.
Divers reportedly righting coral at Breakers reef off Palm Beach