Do artificial reefs enhance the biomass of fish species, or do they just provide a place for existing fish to congregate? If reefs congregate fish, does this increase rates of exploitation by predators (including fishermen)? And what about the Bay? Could artificial reefs provide a haven for bait and shelter for fish, and therefore enhance Bay fishing?
These are some of the questions a new, well-funded reef experiment in Narragansett and Mt. Hope Bays hopes to answer.
Nicole Lengyel, principal biologist at the RI Department of Environmental Management (DEM), is managing a new reef project in collaboration with D. Steven Brown, coastal restoration scientist for The Nature Conservancy.The five-year project started in 2013 and includes the planning, design, construction and monitoring of small-scale experimental reefs in the middle of Narragansett Bay. It aims to evaluate the use of reefs as an enhancement and conservation tool. The project will try to determine whether artificial reefs increase the abundance of sport fish such as tautog, black sea bass, scup and cunner (chogee), or whether they attract existing numbers of fish and increase rates of exploitation (mortality).
The project will cost approximately $715,760. Seventy-five percent of the money will come from the federal Sport Fish Restoration Fund, with a 25-percent match from The Nature Conservancy and from the sale of Rhode Island recreational saltwater fishing licenses.
At a RI Saltwater Anglers Association meeting, Brown from The Nature Conservancy said, “The goal of the project is to conduct a study, an experiment, to assess small-scale reefs to determine if they increase recruitment, increase fish productivity and see what benefits reefs will have for RI.”
“We want to attract fish and provide refuge to offset mortality and to improve growth rates,” Lengyel said. “We hope this approach grows fish.”
Three locations with similar bottom sediment types, water depth and slope will be used for the experiments. Each site design will mimic a low-profile boulder field and contain approximately 1,120 reef balls of various sizes for a total coverage area of 2,730 square feet. An elaborate site model was used to locate the experimental artificial reefs. Water depth, bottom sediment type and water oxygen levels were plotted on Bay maps. The model overlaid the location of shellfish beds, eel and widgeon grass, and boat traffic in the Bay to identify suitable areas for reefs.
Two of the three sites are in the East Passage of Narragansett Bay, on the northwest coast of Aquidneck Island, east of Prudence Island. The third is just inside Mt. Hope Bay, northeast of the Mt. Hope Bridge. Continue reading the half of this article from Capt. Monti……
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