Committed to Conservation Our Division of Marine Fisheries Management continued its commitment to the conservation of marine habitats in 2024 through the partnership and financial support of Monroe County’s Artificial Reef program. Permits have been secured and the first patch reef successfully deployed in November 2024, the first artificial reef deployment in the Florida Keys in 15 years! Habitat support structures, like these well-established structures off Northwest Florida, provide incredibl

The Nautilus Reef Project

Smart coral reefs: This underwater, fish-spotting AI helps protect the rainforest of the sea

History of Artificial Coral Reefs

Not all underwater reefs are made of coral − the US has created artificial reefs from sunken ships, radio towers, boxcars and even voting machines

MOSES / Solutions | ReefSystems

The NJDEP Fish & Wildlife’s Artificial Reef Program conducts reef monitoring through a Ventless Trap Survey. Ventless traps are randomly placed throughout four reef sites off the coast of New Jersey onto different substrates. The traps are deployed and remain in the water for about five weeks every spring, summer and fall. Each week, biologists tend to the traps and record data (such as length, weight, sex, etc.) on the different species that are captured before the animals are returned to the w