In addition to offering habitat to fish, artificial reefs improve fishing opportunities and create new scuba diving destinations.
Florida is responding to fisheries depletion and habitat degradation with one of the nation’s most progressive artificial reef programs, deploying up to 100 public artificial reefs each year.
For more than three decades, Florida Sea Grant has played a leadership role in the evolution of the state’s artificial reef program. This includes co-organizing, in coordination with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission regional artificial reef workshops as well as the the statewide Artificial Reef Summit, a conference held approximately every 4 to 6 years to bring together program coordinators, fishery managers, scientists and constituency groups.
