artifical reefs

simba's picture
simba started the topic in Tuesday, 26 Nov 2013 at 9:25pm

Whats the latest on artifical reefs these days ,does anyone have any info?

simba's picture
simba's picture
simba Thursday, 28 Nov 2013 at 8:33am

can someone throw a bit of light on the artificial reef situation cause there are so many potential spots around the coast that would be perfect for a bit of restructuring .I know the boys are trying to get one incorporated into the proposed srtucture to protect the harbour at coffs.

stunet's picture
stunet's picture
stunet Thursday, 28 Nov 2013 at 9:20am

G'Day Simba,

It's been our aim that, once things are established on the new Swellnet site, we'd host an Artificial Reef forum thread, somewhere those interested in reefs can converse and bounce ideas around. I know that Andrew Pitt and Bob S, both avid reef designers, are keen. Perhaps we'll move things along?

On the Coffs Harbour project: Craig and I were in at Manly Hydraulic Laboratory recently where they had a scale model of the breakwall and were running tests on it. Wasn't any mention of artificial reefs then.

The last I heard of a reef being proposed was at Old Bar. That was to be a Multi Purpose Reef (MPR) to mitigate wave action where they've had coastal erosion and (hopefully) create a surfable wave. Not sure where that project curently stands.

fitzroy-21's picture
fitzroy-21's picture
fitzroy-21 Thursday, 28 Nov 2013 at 9:34am

It was in yesterdays news that they have 4 options for the breakwall at Coff's and option 4 was the artificial (surf?) reef off the breakwall. The issue as always was cost.

simba's picture
simba's picture
simba Thursday, 28 Nov 2013 at 4:28pm

To my mind artificial reefs are a really big deal to surfing,imagine some of the almost point setups that could be improved on,not to mention beach protection,harbour protection etc.Kill two birds with one stone e.g coffs harbour if it gets the go ahead.There are so many natural examples of unreal setups as in Angourie that once a formula was worked out it could be replicated ,reversed or modified to suit.Materials are probably the biggest stumbling block as well as cash and the WILL to have a go but there could be huge benifits for the coastal communities world wide not just here in aus.

simba's picture
simba's picture
simba Thursday, 28 Nov 2013 at 4:28pm

Swellnet get this ball rolling.