Public Reefs
Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Sport Fish Restoration Program
Obsolete oil rigs and decommissioned ships accepted into Texas Parks and Wildlife’s Artificial Reef Program become the hard substrate marine organisms need to grow. But these objects are too large to deploy near shore.
We need 50 feet of clear water from the surface down to the top of the structure.
Dale Shively, who coordinates the program, says near shore reefing using concrete and steel provided by the public is one solution.
The public reefing would be a method where members of the public can take materials that are pre-approved by us to one of our permitted parks and wildlife reef sites and reef those materials.
The 160 acre sites are in Texas waters, nine nautical miles from shore.
And the idea behind near shore reefs is that the average fisherman should be able to get out there and back within a few hours.
The materials, and the reefing plan, must be evaluated by TPW staff.
If we approve that, we certify that and actually tag it. Then we will assign them a spot within the reef site, with special coordinates that they’re allowed to reef material in.
Find links to more information at passporttotexas.org.
That’s our show made possible with a grant from the Sport Fish Restoration Program.
For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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