What's involved

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MANY HANDS
MAKE AN ARTIFICIAL REEF

Time consuming: Many people don't realise the sheer hard work that goes into forming an artificial reef. It's not simply a matter of taking unwanted objects out to sea and just dumping them over the side of your tinnie. Those who decide to undertake a project of this size and nature can expect to give up many thousands of hours of their spare time over many years.

Rules & Regulations: The Bundaberg and District Artificial Reef Association puts in much effort to ensure that all objects deployed at the reef site comply with the government rules and regulations that are in place. Approval has to be obtained from numerous government departments including environmental protection groups. An area has to be decided and agreed upon, then approved and set aside for the artificial reef, and all objects must be placed within this area. Once approval has been given there are an unbelievable amount of rules and regulations that must be followed to the letter. For instance; each and every object to be dumped must be completely clean of any oil, fuel, grease, chemicals, etc that may leach into and have a detrimental effect upon the surrounding environment once the object is placed on the ocean floor. After clean-up the object must be passed by an inspector before it can be placed. After placement, there are monitoring programmes to be followed, including fish counts, photographing of objects and reports to be filed to the relevant authorities. The GPS positions of all objects must be recorded and verified by a qualified surveyor, and passed onto the department as well.

Funds needed: Often, people don't realise the cost involved in placing objects on the bottom. If an object is not donated to the association, there is the purchase price to consider, and if a towing vessel is needed, there are the costs of not only hiring the vessel, but also the wages for the Class 5 skipper that is needed to drive the tow boat. If the object is very large and has to be transported by road, there are road permits to apply and pay for, as well as escort fees. There could also be crane hire to lift the object onto a float or pontoon, fuel for small boats assisting with the deployment, public liability insurance, boat registrations and insurances, maintenance costs, video and photographic equipment and processing costs, and the list goes on. Fund raising by members can cover some of these costs, as can selling items that have to be stripped from the objects.

Community involvement: There are always fund raising activities to organise, as well as display stands to help make the general public aware of the project. An association with dedicated active members makes the work load a lot easier. It is also a great help to have the support - monetary and otherwise - of local businesses, councils and user groups such as fishing clubs and dive clubs.

A rewarding experience: In spite of all this, the involvement with the building of an artificial reef can be an extremely rewarding project. Watching the reef take shape and watching also the marine creatures that make it their home can give a great deal of satisfaction to those who have helped make it a reality. This is especially so for scuba divers. Because they become so involved with the monitoring they get a "fish eye view"
of the reef and can see first hand the positive effect on the marine environment. Video footage helps to make non-divers aware of what's happening below the surface, and can be a very useful tool when applying for government funding. A few minutes of impressive footage is much better than a thousand spoken or written words.

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