BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. (WBBH) – Wednesday, about eight miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, it looked like a construction site on the water.
One by one, massive box culverts were lowered into the water by a crew working on a barge.
“There’s a lot of coordination that has to go on,” FGCU student Brandon Galindo told NBC2 from a boat near the barge. “We’re just lucky enough to be out here to see it.”
It – is actually pieces of FGCU’s brand new artificial reef, called ‘Kimberly’s Reef.’ Wednesday morning, the first six of what will be 18 culverts were dropped some 30 feet to the ocean floor.
“I hope that this could really lead to more important discoveries,” Galindo said.
He’s excited to see what marine life is drawn to the reef once construction is finished. So too, is FGCU Water School professor Dr. Mike Parsons.
“It’ll be basically an underwater classroom or an underwater platform for education, for recreation, for fishing, of course, as well as the science we’re interested in,” Parsons explained.
MORE FROM FGCU: New technology at FGCU’s Water School addressing water quality issues in SWFL
On the ride there and back were reminders of why this type of research is so important. Dead fish are floating everywhere along the coast, as Red Tide causes problems in the water.
The hope is that the new reef can help researchers better understand its impacts.
“But then, we can also see the recovery (from Red Tide). How long does it take these systems to bounce back? You could look at impacts and bouncebacks with hurricanes. You can also look at the big flows of Caloosahatchee. What impacts and bounce back do we see there,” Parsons explained.
What’s learned at the reef can ultimately help the entire community – one that’s so dependent on what’s happening in the water.
“(This project) will get people thinking about water, thinking about things – marine life – that’s in the water,” Parsons said. “And think about how water quality affects it, how our activities might affect it, and what we can do better to basically safeguard and shepherd these different resources.”
“What we can learn from this, in the long run, is going to carry on generations past us,” Galindo said.
To learn more about Kimberly’s Reef – and the girl the project is named after – CLICK HERE.
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