KBeck
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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.
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.