Tangier Sound Reef

Tangier Sound Reef, Crisfield, Maryland

Coordinates the site are contained here:  Tangier Sound Reef Poster

Tangier Sound: N 37.55.245′  W 75.56.663′

In an effort to restore marine habitat while improving fishing opportunities for recreational fisherman in the Chesapeake Bay, Coastal Conservation Association’s (CCA’s) national marine habitat program, the Building Conservation Trust (BCT), has partnered with CCA Maryland, the Maryland Artificial Reef Initiation (MARI), Rinker Materials and Engel Coolers are adding nearly four hundred tons of concrete structure to the Tangier Sound reef site.

Through the generous support of Rinker Materials in Frederick, Maryland, 21 tractor trailer trucks, more than several hundred tons, of pre-cast concrete pipe sections were transported to Smith Brothers, Inc. marine yard in Galesville, Maryland.

Marine contractor Smith Brothers, Inc. will expand the network of individual reefs already throughout the Tangier Sound site.  The design of the concrete structure allows it duplicate naturally occurring habitat by providing hard substrate for larvae to adhere too. This process is necessary to the basic formation of a live-bottom community of invertebrates, like filter-feeding oysters, which quickly colonize and inhabit almost every square inch of reef structures.

BCT and CCA Maryland have rolled out a number of other habitat initiatives in recent months, including the ongoing Living Reef Action Campaign project, which utilizes concrete Reef Balls to restore oyster reefs in the Chesapeake Bay while engaging thousands of school students across Maryland in STEM-related learning activities. BCT projects in other states include The Fripp Island Reef which involves several deck barges, armored personnel carriers and more than 200 concrete habitat modules, as well as the Fantasy Island Reef in Tampa Bay, which is enhancing oyster habitat and stabilizing roughly 700 feet of shoreline on the island.

 

For more information about CCA Maryland’s habitat work in the Chesapeake Bay, contact Rick Elyar at relyar@ccamd.org. Learn more by visiting CCA Maryland’s habitat website at www.ccamdhabitat.com and BCT’s website at www.buildingconservation.org.