Florida’s first Coastal Corridor reef is in the water. FWC and the Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida deployed it in September, roughly 14 nautical miles west of Naples, and it’s the first structure to go in under a $15 million state program to expand Florida’s artificial reef network.
Florida already runs one of the largest artificial reef programs in the country. What makes the Coastal Corridor Project worth watching is that a share of the funding goes toward determining where future structures should go, not just putting more of them on the bottom.
We spend most of our week on the regulatory side of Florida’s environment. Our environmental team works through FWC on gopher tortoise relocations, bald eagle management plans, and protected species surveys, so we know the agency mostly through permit review and site conditions. It’s good to see the building side of that same mission.
Nice work to everyone who got it out there. We’ll be watching this one.
Project and photo: FWC and the Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida.
