Trip Report Erojacks Artificial Reef at Dania Beach/ Mizell-Johnson State Park

[Pipehorse]

This is not a "Trip Report", it is a "Dive Report", dive report header does not exist, so I use trip report.

Decided to skip the crowds at both Blue Heron Bridge and Lauderdale By The Sea today. Instead I opted to drive a little further south to Dania Beach to do the Erojack Artifical Reef. Erojacks Artificial Reef is located in the waters of the Mizell-Johnson State Park (formerly John U. Lloyd State Park). It is often overlooked, I believe because it is a little more difficult to access. It is an artificial reef of cement erojacks piled 9-10 feet high that runs perpendicular to the shoreline for a distance of 1700 feet. It ends at a western facing ledge. If taking off in a plane to the east from Fort Lauderdale it can clearly be seen from the sky. I used to access the reef from the Dania Beach parking lot, but now I use the state park instead. Drive into the park, first parking lot on the right, pull into the dirt parking lot side to get to the access The reef is 1700 feet north of Dania Beach Pier or 1100 feet south of beach entrance at the state park. . The walk to the beach entrance is another 600 feet. So there is no difference in the amount of ground covered by foot. However, it cost $4.00 for entrance to the state park, and I believe $3.00/hr for parking at Dania Beach. I was there a total of 4 hours. There is a shower and bathroom at the state park. The 30 gallon water tank and pump in the back of my truck makes all the difference though.

I believe there might be a marker on the beach directly in front of the erojacks. However, I don't bother trying to find the marker. Instead I walk south down the beach approximately 250 yards, make an entry and swim south east to intersect the erojacks., seem procedure if using Dania Beach parking lot, just walk north about 350 yards and swim north east. There is sand patch to cross, and then a low profile patch reef is present. Once the erojacks are reached I swim along the erojacks, generally to where they end. Depth is shallow at first less than 10 feet, and gives way to a depth of maximum 23 feet midway on the jacks. The western facing ledge at the end of jacks is a step up, and the depth there is 16 feet. There was one group of four divers there today, and me solo diving. That is typical for this reef. Of course you need to bring your flag, boats will sometimes drift or anchor in the vicinity to fish the reef. The most crowded I have ever seen it there was during a lobster mini season with four boats on station and about twelve divers.

Today I used the park entrance. Did the 200 yard walk from beach access, did an entry and swam south east to intersect the erojacks. I swam to the end of the erojacks and turned north at reef ledge and continued that way for 1000 feet. Then turned west and landed right in front of the entrance to the beach. About 140 minute dive. Sea temp was 80f, and visibility ranged from 40ft in deeper water to 20ft closer to the beach. Did a REEF fish survey 53 species in 65 minutes. A lot of the fish tend to hide under the erojacks, so it seems as if there are less fish than you might expect. However the fish like to hide in recesses below the erojacks so there are plenty of fish to be seen there. Usually Tarpon like to cruise between the Dania Beach Pier and the erojacks. Today I did not observe any. Usually a few Nurse Sharks are present, today I did not observe any. What was interesting is the amount of Ballonfish. Ballonfish are common on the reefs in south Florida, but in small numbers, say less than 5 on a dive. Today I counted 26 in one small area, and a total 42 for the dive. I can't recall seeing them in those numbers before. Lots of grunts, Cesars, French, Spanish, White, and more than any other species, Blue Stripe Grunts. Observed one small Green Sea Turtle. Many Doctorfish and Surgeonfish. Heading back across the reef observed many Flamingo Tongues and a Fingerprint Cyphoma on some of the many soft corals that populate that reef. Respectively, Erojacks, Fingerprint Cyphoma, Healthy Grooved Brain Coral, Clathria virgultosa (sponge), Spotted Trunkfish, Ballonfish Video, Swimming Along Erojacks Video, and East End Erojacks Video

 

[Johnoly]

Great shore dive & video!!

 

[Redfoot]

Awesome, thanks for sharing and for doing the REEF survey. Do you submit that data to anyone or is it for your own interest?

Love those balloon fish. Very cool to see them schooling up, I wonder what caused that? Mating?

 

[bmorescuba]

Great report. I have had a lot of fun diving the erojacks over the years. This might help orient some people who have never visited the area before. If you look closely, you can see the erojacks on Google Maps (Dana Erojack Artificial Reef · 3V7R+77, Hollywood, FL 33004, Vereinigte Staaten) .

 

[MrChen]

The jacks run perpendicular to the shoreline?

 

[bmorescuba]

The jacks run perpendicular to the shoreline?

Yes, perhaps not quite a 90° angle, but pretty close.

 

[Pipehorse]

To avoid the crowds at both BHB and LBTS I drove down to Dania Beach yesterday to do the Erojacks again. My plan was to use the state park for access. But when I arrived at about 0840 park rangers had the park road blocked off. I asked a ranger how long the park was going to be closed. He replied, "I don't know". I asked what's going on, he replied, "A police investigation". While I thought to myself what kind of police investigation warrants closing a 310 acre park, I came to the conclusion that any further conversation would be fruitless, and not get me any closer to my ultimate destination of the Erojacks on scuba. So I made the left turn and headed towards the Dania Beach parking lot.

I drove to the the north end of the parking lot and parked, there were more people than I would expect for this time of day., but I guess people were getting an early Memorial Day Weekend start. As I was getting my gear ready I was wondering if park rangers were guarding the entrance to the park along the beach. For those not familiar, a very small amount of beach to the north of the parking lot is Dania Beach, the rest is the State Park. The section of beach south of the Erojacks is easier to access from Dania Beach than the State Park. There is a large sign that says "No Trespassing State Park", but is ignored by everybody walking along the beach.

I geared up and started walking north. Recall, from Dania Beach the Erojacks are about 1300 feet away. As I got about two hundred yards up the beach a couple with snorkel gear asked me if I intended to dive the jacks. I said yes, and they pointed out that there was a LEO another two hundred yards up the beach that had told them they couldn't snorkel there. I replied, "what they are investigating the water as well". My plan was to enter the water long before the LEO could ever reach me. However, the LEO started walking south as beach goers were walking north, and he allowed several to pass. I passed him going north, and he said nothing, so apparently the "investigation" had come to an end.

In the first post of this thread I mentioned I was unsure if there was some kind of marker for the Erojacks. Well there is, a post with what looks like a bright orange life preserver case on top it. I entered the water somewhat south of that marker and intercepted the western end of the jacks almost immediately by swimming northeast. Visibility in the shallow water was about 20ft with a greenish haze to it. Visibility further out in water greater than 15ft in depth was 40ft with blue color. Sea temp was 82F. Current was to the south. Swell was minimal when I started the dive at 0925 but picked up throughout the 150 minutes I spent under water. I was wondering about the swell, since the wind was minimal. I guess the swell was from tropical disturbance further up north.

I slowly made my way east along the erojacks, stopping to tie off my flag line frequently. The visibility was nice so it put me in a wide angle view frame of mind. So very little searching for the more diminutive invertebrates and fish. A few Tarpon put in an appearance, but they were being shy and so stayed near the edge of visibility range.

Lots of Balloonfish in the same location as last time, and in general along the erojacks. I have given it some thought and believe the Balloonfish just enjoy the cover of the erojacks. Normally Balloonfish will hover in gorgonians for cover. The patch reef surrounding the jacks is filled with gorgonians, so I think the Balloonfish just congregrate on the jacks instead of using gorgonians as they normally do.

Lots of Blue Stripe Grunts, lots of White Grunts. so many that I marked Abundant for both species on the REEF survey. "Abundant" on the REEF survey means and amount of one species>100. "Many" on a REEF survey means an amount 100>but >10, normally Blue Stripe and White Grunts are in the Many range not Abundant range.

The snorkelers I mentioned earlier passed by heading east, and then heading back west about the time I reached the halfway mark. Shortly after that nine divers passed by heading east. I figured that they were tourists or new divers because not a single one them had any exposure protection. Meanwhile yours truly is in a 3 mil and barely keeping warm enough. The only one of them to slow down was carrying the flag. She had to back track to uncross her flag line from mine. About three quarters of the way to the end the nine divers passed me heading west. It always strikes me as a little odd that divers don't stop to look more closely at things, maybe they were in wide angle mode as well.

When I reached the end of the jacks (it took 90 minutes to get 1300feet) I stayed in the vicinity for a while making fish observations. This last 75 foot portion of the jacks that intersects with the ledge tends to have the greatest concentration of fish. Its at this point in the dive, that having been forced to use the Dania Beach entrance from the south, instead of the park from the north became a blessing in disguise. I turned south and leisurely drifted with the current along the western facing ledge.

The ledge heading south seems better defined than the ledge heading north. Lots of schooling grunts hanging above and below the ledge. Observed a small Green Sea Turtle, and large Cornet fish but was unable to capture either video or still photography. When I thought I had covered about 750 feet, I popped up to confirm my location to the pier. A little more than a 100 yards to the north, perfect! I think the patch reef adjacent to the jacks the best for finding mollusks of the family Cyphoma, i.e. Spotted Cyphoma, Fingerprint Cyphoma, and Flamingo's Tongue. So I headed west south west taking my time across the patch reef to finish the dive about 75 yards north of the parking lot. Respectively, Juvenile Longfin Damsel, Porkfish, True Tulip, Western Shallow End of Erojacks, Spotted Cyphoma, Swimming East Video, Swimming East Video, Swimming South Video, and Swimming South Video.

 

[Pipehorse]

Given the visibility at BHB yesterday, I decided to drive south today. Arrived at Mizell-Johnson State Park at 0845, to approach the Erojacks from the north. Parked closed to path that leads to the beach and geared up. Water close in shore had much better visibility than a week ago, though, overall visibility at deeper depths of the jacks was a little less than last week. About 35ft with a bit of greenish haze color, sea temp was 82f. I did not encounter any other divers for the entirety of the 170 minute dive. A school of about 12 Tarpon passed me by, but did not stay in video range for long. I meandered back and forth the length of jacks looks for species of whatever happened to present itself as new to me. Today it turned out be mostly mollusks. A fast moving species of arrow squid I could not identify or capture by video, a Radial Purse Oyster, and a Hemipolygana corinifera (no common name). Did a REEF fish count of 62 species in 85 minutes. When I reached the eastern end of the jacks I turned north along the ledge, and northwest to bring close to where the beach exit heads back to the parking lot. In the first post I mentioned that I was unsure if there was a marker on the beach for the jacks. Last week I pointed out there is an orange life preserver case on a post near the jacks. And now I can verify there is another post that say JAX directly in line on the beach just north of the life preserver. Respectively, Erojacks, Hemipolygona carinifera, Radial Purse Oyster, Triplefin (species unknown to me), Blue Stripe and White Grunts, and Tarpon Video.

 

[tarponchik]

Any nurse sharks under the jacks? I used to see up to 5 per dive but last year there was just one. Likely, in inverse proportion to the number of the fishing boats hanging above the jacks.

Also, why from the north? The walk from the south takes less (albeit, parking is more expensive).

 

[Pipehorse]

Also, why from the north? The walk from the south takes less (albeit, parking is more expensive).

I used to access the reef from the Dania Beach parking lot, but now I use the state park instead. Drive into the park, first parking lot on the right, pull into the dirt parking lot side to get to the access The reef is 1700 feet north of Dania Beach Pier or 1100 feet south of beach entrance at the state park. . The walk to the beach entrance is another 600 feet. So there is no difference in the amount of ground covered by foot.

The above that I quoted myself on can be confirmed on google maps. Dania Beach is $3.00/hr. The north end of the Dania Beach Parking lot tends to stink like dead fish, because of refuse left in garbage cans by fisherman (if they even bother to use the garbage cans), and there is no shade. Is there a public bathroom except in Finnegans? Or do you have to pay to use the bathroom on the pier? North end of the parking lot is always crowded, even on weekdays. Just what I need, to come down to the Erojacks to escape a crowd at BHB and LBTS to deal with another crowd in Dania.

State Park cost $3.00 total. Lots of shade in the state park, and lots less people in the state park. The shower at the state park is located just the other side of the dunes along with along with the public bathroom. Which given that it is a public bathroom is spacious and clean. IMHO its no contest, the park provides a far greater out of water experience than Dania Beach. However, if airplanes are landing at FTL from the east, the state parking lot is directly under the flight path, so there is that.