{"id":355946,"date":"2026-07-29T08:26:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T08:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/355946\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T08:26:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T08:26:26","slug":"beneath-the-surface-florida-weekly-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/355946\/","title":{"rendered":"Beneath the surface – Florida Weekly"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

Barracuda and goliath grouper at 105-foot deep Reef Dart site. -COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n

Dane Kelly remembers the day his father disappeared beneath the waves.\n<\/p>\n

His father was a marine contractor hired to scuttle two old barges to create artificial reefs in Lee County.\n<\/p>\n

While one barge sank, Danny Kelly was punching holes in the side of the other one so it could take on water.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of a sudden, a big wave came through, so the barge shifted,\u201d said Dane, who was about 12 years old at the time, watching it happen from a tugboat.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThen the barge listed and went on its side. My dad slipped into the water, the pumps went into the water, and some steel plate on the barge stabbed him in his gut and took him all the way to the bottom.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

When he hit bottom, the plate finally dislodged, and he was able to swim to the surface.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all freaking out that he\u2019s dead,\u201d Dane recalled. \u201cAnd, I don\u2019t know, a minute and a half later, he pops up and goes, \u2018Oh, I lost my glasses.\u2019\u201d\n<\/p>\n

For nearly half a century, the Kelly family has made a business out of intentionally sinking things. Not to get rid of them, but to create life.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dane and Travis Kelly of Kelly Brothers have spent their lives working and playing on the water. -COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n

Now, Dane and his brother, Travis, own Kelly Brothers, a Fort Myers-based commercial marine construction company that specializes in building artificial reefs, docks, seawalls, marinas, bridges and other waterfront structures throughout Southwest Florida.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe work hard so we can go out there and go fishing,\u201d he said of his family\u2019s commitment to the water. \u201cSo, we believe in it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Growing up, Dane said he and his brother \u201clearned the ropes\u201d at the company their father started in 1980. That meant everything from operating a crane to running a tugboat.\n<\/p>\n

As a fisherman and diver who\u2019s spent much of his life on the water, Dane recognizes the effect of artificial reefs on South Florida\u2019s marine life.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen an artificial reef is built, it creates a habitat for fish and gives them a structure,\u201d he said. \u201cIt creates a place for shellfish and marine life to attach to. When the small fish have a place to go and hide from the bigger fish, then it creates a whole ecosystem, so you can go to these locations, and you can see all kinds of fish that you\u2019ve never seen before.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The United Caribbean is a 147-foot steel cargo ship that was sunk in 2000 off the Boca Raton inlet. -COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n

Florida leads the nation with more than 4,500 public artificial reef sites across 34 of the state\u2019s 35 coastal counties, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission\u2019s Artificial Reef Program.\n<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s artificial reefs range from retired ships and barges to specially designed concrete structures and construction debris. Some reefs are made simply from strategically dropped rocks.\n<\/p>\n

But getting them into the water has become more challenging, given the growing scarcity of suitable older vessels, a shortage of qualified contractors to do the work, and fewer staging sites as waterfront property is gobbled up for development.\n<\/p>\n

Choosing the right spot\n<\/p>\n

Choosing where to place an artificial reef is a complex decision, one typically made by local reef managers in conjunction with marine scientists, engineers, contractors and regulatory agencies.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s coral reef or hard bottom in the vicinity, that\u2019s not ideal, so you\u2019re looking for an area that is more open sand,\u201d said Ana Zangroniz, Sea Grant extension agent for Miami-Dade County.\n<\/p>\n

Proximity to shore is also important.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Dean Hicks artificial reef project in Fort Myers includes more than 1,000 tons of concrete debris. -KELLY BROTHERS \/ COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s a shore-accessible site, it\u2019s probably going to be shallower, and therefore more geared to snorkeling,\u201d she said. \u201cIf it\u2019s a little further offshore, that would require a motorboat, so likely more for fishing and diving.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Large vessels need to be scuttled in water deep enough to avoid navigational hazards.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want a mast sticking up out of the water where a motorboat could run into it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Zangroniz works for Florida Sea Grant, a research, education and outreach program headquartered at the University of Florida that works with coastal communities on issues including artificial reef management.\n<\/p>\n

She has mixed emotions about artificial reefs because they put foreign material in the water, but she does see value in diverting attention from natural resources, especially the coral reefs on the Atlantic Coast.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cOffering those opportunities to interact with the reef, whether it be through fishing or snorkeling or diving, helps reduce some of that pressure on the natural reefs,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

Life takes hold\n<\/p>\n

Michael Sipos, Sea Grant extension agent for Collier County, noted that while fishing produces $13 billion a year for Florida\u2019s economy, artificial reefs have an impact that extends beyond leisure and sport.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAny kind of large structure would attract fish,\u201d he said. \u201cBut over time, as it becomes covered with those corals and tunicates and other kinds of epiphytic (plant-like) organisms, it\u2019s providing a good ecological niche that could support the base of the food chain, that could provide habitat and feeding opportunities and potentially increase fish reproduction in certain areas.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Michael Sipos is the Sea Grant agent for Collier County. -COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n

Sipos said there\u2019s less push for artificial reefs in Southwest Florida because the region has more natural bottom habitat compared to other parts of the state.\n<\/p>\n

In Florida, most projects are the result of public-private partnerships and must win approval at the federal level.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a really big partnership to get something sunk,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

From warship to reef\n<\/p>\n

One of Kelly Brothers\u2019 biggest projects to date was the sinking of the 165-foot World War II ship USS Mohawk in 2012.\n<\/p>\n

During the war, the \u201cMighty Mo\u201d was a Coast Guard cutter that survived German U-boats, helped save hundreds of merchant mariners and earned a footnote in history by transmitting the final weather report to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower ahead of D-Day. It was later rescued from a scrapyard to serve as a museum ship and today continues its service by providing habitat for marine life as the nation\u2019s first veterans\u2019 memorial reef.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Danny Kelly and Dane Kelly pose in front of the USS Mohawk, a retired Coast Guard cutter they towed from Key West to transform into an artificial reef in 2012. -COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n

Yet bringing the ship from Key West wasn\u2019t easy. The boat was towed to the company\u2019s mooring facility in Fort Myers Beach \u2013 a nerve-wracking trip. \u201cIf anything happened to the ship, we were responsible,\u201d Dane said.\n<\/p>\n

Crews spent months preparing the ship for deployment, an arduous process that involved meticulous scraping and cleaning, as well as draining it of oil and other fluids that could harm the environment.\n<\/p>\n

Finally, a blasting crew placed explosive charges, the boat was towed offshore to a site 28 miles off Captiva Island, and then law enforcement detonated the charges.\n<\/p>\n

The boat sank \u201cperfectly,\u201d landing on its keel in 90 feet of water. \u201cThe sheriff dives it, makes sure everything\u2019s OK, verifies all the charges went off, clears it, and now we have an artificial reef.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Measuring success\n<\/p>\n

Once an artificial reef reaches the seafloor, it doesn\u2019t stay barren for long.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we put a structure down, we almost immediately see nurse sharks and sea turtles and bait fish on them,\u201d said Katelyn Armstrong, reef coordinator for Palm Beach County.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Katelyn Armstrong, Palm Beach County\u2019s reef coordinator, out in the field. -COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n

Palm Beach has 47 miles of natural reef and about 150 artificial reefs \u2013 a third of which are sunken vessels, while the rest are some combination of concrete and limestone.\n<\/p>\n

There are strict regulations for what kind of material can form an artificial reef \u2013 steel boats are fine, for example, but not fiberglass.\n<\/p>\n

Palm Beach\u2019s powerful currents have been known to tear a sunken vessel in half, so any artificial reef material must weigh a minimum of two tons.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is unique to Palm Beach,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Katelyn Armstrong is Palm Beach County\u2019s reef coordinator. -COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n

Armstrong said a great example of a thriving artificial reef is the Phil Foster Park Snorkel Trail beneath the Blue Heron Bridge in Riviera Beach. It features an 800-foot underwater trail of boulders with reefs made from hammerhead shark sculptures, sunken boats and shopping carts, where visitors can spot a wide and colorful variety of life: tropical fish, stingrays, starfish, seahorses and octopuses.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have people come from all over,\u201d Katelyn said. \u201cWe get species that are just out of this world, on a site that\u2019s just under a bridge and adjacent to an urban area.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Zangroniz said the wrecks off Jupiter have become destinations not only for drift diving, but for watching spawning aggregations of Goliath grouper, a major draw for recreational divers like herself.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Goliath grouper swim past the artificial reef created by the MG 111, an old Mississippi River barge, in Jupiter. -COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s cool to see one Goliath grouper on a dive, but when you see 30 to 40 of them all stacked up in front of a shipwreck, it\u2019s a pretty unique experience,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

The pioneers\n<\/p>\n

The driving force behind Palm Beach\u2019s artificial reef program has been the West Palm Beach Fishing Club.\n<\/p>\n

Founded in 1934, the club created the state\u2019s first permitted artificial reefs in the 1960s.\n<\/p>\n

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West Palm Beach Fishing Club began deploying artificial reefs in the 1960s, starting here with old car bodies. -COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of those reefs that were sunk 50 years ago are still out there and are still popular spots to fish and dive,\u201d said Tom Twyford, a 38-year veteran of the club who now serves as executive director of its charitable arm, the Palm Beach County Fishing Foundation.\n<\/p>\n

Under the leadership of president and boat builder John Rybovich, the club created the county\u2019s reef program by dropping old car bodies and washing machines offshore before moving on to old and derelict ships.\n<\/p>\n

But such vessels have become harder to procure. Their value as scrap metal is high, plus it\u2019s increasingly expensive to satisfy environmental requirements.\n<\/p>\n

So the club came up with an innovative idea.\n<\/p>\n

Some of their most recent deployments involved \u201creef darts\u201d: repurposed concrete power poles standing up to 55 feet high and weighing up to 10 tons. Attached to a flat concrete base, the darts are designed to self-right and land on the bottom, even at great depths.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike the west coast of Florida, the continental shelf here drops off very quickly,\u201d Tom said. \u201cWith that comes the opportunity to get all kinds of really cool fish, and so we needed to develop a reef that would be suitable for really deep water.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

To that end, the club has deployed 181 reef darts since 2017, including a \u201cforest\u201d standing 500 feet deep off Palm Beach Inlet.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s Florida\u2019s deepest artificial permitted reef,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

Photography and video are difficult at that depth, but acoustic telemetry monitors have detected an \u201cincredible\u201d variety of life, including 170 great white sharks in the last few years.\n<\/p>\n

Tom said the reef dart sites show the ultimate benefit of artificial reefs: creating habitat where none existed. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to fish in 500 feet of water, so part of our idea with reef darts was very conservation oriented. It\u2019s almost like a deep-water refuge.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

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An example of the Reef Darts used by Palm Beach County. -COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n

A murky future\n<\/p>\n

While the club\u2019s efforts have been successful, future projects are on hold.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got yellow edge groupers, snowy groupers, warsaw groupers, amberjack \u2013 all kinds of really cool things have happened out there since we built that reef dart forest,\u201d Tom said. \u201cBut unfortunately, we had to quit building them because we don\u2019t have a contractor and we don\u2019t have a place to stage our material.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Palm Beach County\u2019s artificial reef program has been largely dormant since the closure of McCulley Marine Services, a Fort Pierce contractor that built reefs for counties along Florida\u2019s southeast coast. The company closed in 2023 following the owner\u2019s death.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Sea Emperor is a 171-foot barge that was filled with concrete culverts and sunk in 1991 off Boca Raton. -COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t get anything offshore without a qualified contractor to take it,\u201d Katelyn added.\n<\/p>\n

Recent projects either received no bids or received bids that were out of the county\u2019s price range.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all struggling to get our programs back up to where we were at one point,\u201d she said of coastal counties. \u201cNo matter what, things will be more expensive, so I don\u2019t believe it will ever be back to five to seven (deployments) a year.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Another problem is the loss of the Port of Palm Beach as a staging ground. Tom said that alternatives are in short supply given the high demand for waterfront property. \u201cThe reef program here in Palm Beach County has been in limbo coming up on two years now because of those two main issues.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Still building\n<\/p>\n

Despite the challenges facing some counties, new artificial reefs are still coming to life along Florida\u2019s Gulf Coast.\n<\/p>\n

In 2023, Kelly Brothers helped Florida Gulf Coast University deploy Kimberly\u2019s Reef, a 10-acre artificial reef and living laboratory 10 miles off Bonita Springs, where researchers study how marine life takes to new habitats.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dane and Travis Kelly own Kelly Brothers, a marine construction company based in Fort Myers. -COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n

Dane is proud to see his family\u2019s work reflected in Southwest Florida\u2019s waters.\n<\/p>\n

On a recent diving excursion near a local reef, he and his family encountered amberjack, Goliath grouper, scamp, mangrove snapper, mutton snapper, hogfish and red snapper.\n<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cIt\u2019s really wild what a little bit of structure does.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kimberly\u2019s Reef is an 11-acre underwater research complex 10 miles off Bonita Springs in 30 feet of water built by Kelly Brothers for Florida Gulf Coast University. -COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n

IN THE KNOW\n<\/p>\n

Collier County
area reef projects include:\n<\/p>\n

Jackson Fish Camp off Naples Bay is the proposed site for the reef from Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida approved on July 14 by Collier County Commissioners.
\nThe Tod Sirod Reef (formerly Collier 1 Reef) is an artificial reef located roughly 10 to 13.5 nautical miles west of Gordon Pass off the coast of Collier County that is to be formally donated during the Aug. 11 County Commission meeting.
\nThe City of Naples deployed more than 300 tons of concrete pilings on April 24 at the Wasmer Reef Site, which is located about 10 nautical miles offshore of Gordan Pass. The pilings were salvaged from the Naples Pier demolition.
\nView these and other ongoing reef projects on Collier.gov<\/a> with more being added this summer. (Direct link www.collier.gov\/files\/content\/county\/v\/4\/county-development\/transportation-management\/coastal-zone-management\/artificial-reef-program\/reef-locations.pdf<\/a> )<\/p>\n

Lee County
area reef projects include:\n<\/p>\n

View Lee County reefs and shipwrecks on swflwaterways.com<\/a> (Direct link swflwaterways.com\/dive\/reef-and-shipwreck-map\/<\/a> )
\nAbout 7 miles off Bonita Beach, Kimberly\u2019s Reef is an artificial reef built and monitored by researchers from Florida Gulf Coast University\u2019s The Water School, near the outflow of the Caloosahatchee River into the Gulf. FGCU researchers track water quality, nutrient flows, and red tide blooms. Covered in algae and populated by nurse sharks, sea turtles, cobia, and diverse fish, it is a popular spot for free diving and fishing.
\nCompletion of the new Big Carlos Pass Bridge and Big Carlos Bridge Artificial Reef was celebrated at the end of June. This bridge, with 60-foot clearance, replaced the bascule bridge, which was then used to construct the artificial reef following demolition. The full $90.8 million project is to last 75 years for Fort Myers Beach.<\/p>\n

State reefs and funding data include:\n<\/p>\n

Florida\u2019s main coral reef tract extends approximately 350 miles from the Dry Tortugas through the Florida Keys and north along the Atlantic coast to the St. Lucie Inlet in Martin County. That tract does not run directly along the Naples and Bonita Springs coastline, but Collier County\u2019s waterways and reefs, and those of Lee County northward, are equally important to the health of the coast.
\nBetween 2023 and 2025, the state invested approximately $3.5 million in The Reef Institute\u2019s restoration.
\nIn January 2026, The Reef Institute received approximately 4,500 juvenile corals from The Florida Aquarium. They will grow and return to Palm Beach and Martin counties.
\nFlorida\u2019s fiscal year 2026\u201327 budget includes an $8 million appropriation for coral reefs, but new restrictions leave funding of ongoing projects uncertain.<\/p>\n

Supporting reefs takes many forms:\n<\/p>\n

Methods of supporting reefs include rescuing and biobanking threatened corals, preserving genetic diversity, reproducing corals, raising juveniles, training restoration practitioners, outplanting corals and monitoring their survival, among others.
\nAdvocating for recurring state and federal funding, encouraging foundations to provide multi-year and flexible operating support, engaging businesses as conservation partners, and donating directly to restoration organizations are among other ways to contribute.<\/p>\n

Organizations to connect with for supporting South Florida\u2019s reefs:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barracuda and goliath grouper at 105-foot deep Reef Dart site. -COURTESY PHOTO Dane Kelly remembers the day his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-355946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}