Published Sunday, June 27, 1999, in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
>------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Prison work rehabilitates from the ocean
floor on up
>
>
>By Emilie
Lounsberry
>INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
>
>MAURICE RIVER TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- Look out, developers. New
Jersey officials
>are getting ready to launch an innovative
style of seashore housing -- for
>fish.
>
>This week, state officials will plunk the fish "condos" into
the ocean off
>Barnegat Light on Long Beach Island.
>
>The gray concrete structures are the latest
element of New Jersey's
>artificial-reef program, which is
intended to create new habitat for fish
>and protect them from
aquatic predators while providing new hot spots for
>fishermen
and divers.
>
>Though the "reef balls" -- their
official name -- are used around the
>world to build artificial
reefs, they are being manufactured in New Jersey
>by an unusual
workforce: prisoners at the Southern >>State<<
>>>Correctional<< >>Facility<< in
Cumberland County.
>
>The inmates, who earn
$1.60 to $3.70 a day, use fiberglass molds to cast
>the poured
concrete into 3-foot-by-4-foot structures that weigh 1,400 to
>1,600 pounds each and look like igloos with holes. It is a
back-breaking
>job, but prisoners said last week that it was
satisfying work.
>
>"It's like rehabilitation,"
said inmate Patrick Hellriegel, 52, who is
>doing time for
aggravated manslaughter, as he prepared the molds for a new
>batch of concrete. "This is the first time I felt good in
years, doing this
>kind of work. I know it's good for the
environment."
>
>Anthony Buddington, 35, of
Jersey City, who is serving seven years for
>robbery, said he
liked the idea of helping the fish.
>
>"They
need a home, too," he said.
>
>When the first
group of reef balls is put into the ocean about four miles
>from
shore on Tuesday, they will join an ever-growing number of sunken
>ships, military tanks and other structures that are slowly
transforming the
>landscape of the ever-shifting sandy ocean
floor off New Jersey. Reef balls
>provide a place for fish to
hide, lay eggs or just swim -- as coral reefs
>do naturally in
other places.
>
>"The idea is that they mimic
natural reefs," said Richard Christian,
>sport-fish restoration
coordinator for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries
>Commission.
>
>Christian, whose
agency is composed of marine-fishery representatives of
>states
from Maine to Florida, said that New Jersey's program, administered
>by the Department of Environmental Protection Division of Fish,
Game and
>Wildlife, was one of the most innovative because of
the variety of items
>used to create reefs.
>
>Since the program began in 1984, more than 1,200 reefs have
been built on a
>network of 14 sites between Sandy Hook and Cape
May. Even a chunk of the
>old Ben Franklin Bridge is now part of
a reef off Cape May. There are
>tires, boats and barges,
military vehicles -- and soon, the reef balls.
>This year's
plans call for installing 600 reef balls as well as tanks and
>vessels that have been cleaned up and inspected so they will
not hurt the
>environment.
>
>Bill Figley, who is in charge of the reef program for the state
DEP, said
>the reef-ball project was funded by the federal
excise tax on fishing
>equipment. He said making, transporting
and installing each reef ball cost
>about $125.
>
>The state also has an adopt-a-wreck program,
through which clubs,
>organizations and individual participants
can donate money to pay for the
>sinking of a wreck or other
reef structure. Last year's adoptions included
>the sinking of
about 20 Army tanks, including one sponsored by the
>Philadelphia chapter of the Explorer's Club.
>
>Andrew Applegate, who owns a fishing-party boat -- the Captain
Applegate
>-- that goes out from Atlantic City and fishes above
artificial reefs, said
>he believed the new reef balls, if
properly placed, would attract fish and
>thus keep more
fishermen and fisherwomen happy.
>
>"I think
they're going to work well," said Applegate, former president of
>the Artificial Reef Association, which has supported New
Jersey's project.
>
>Figley said the idea was
pretty much that the artificial structures would
>attract fish
-- crabs and lobsters, too -- and that they would make their
>way into the hollow interiors.
>
>"The environment moves and makes it impossible for a lot of
animals to gain
>a foothold and stay put and survive," Figley
said.
>
>The structures also will provide a
surface that encourages the growth of
>algae, mussels, barnacles
and other life forms that, in turn, become food
>for the fish.
>
>Figley said the reef balls should attract an
array of fish -- sea bass,
>blackfish, triggerfish and others.
He said the balls would be dropped into
>the ocean in varying
configurations; in some areas there may be as many as
>20 or 30
of them plunked down in a type of housing subdivision.
>
>He said that once the reef balls become covered with underwater
growth, the
>holes disappear and the structures resemble coral.
"They look fairly
>natural," Figley said.
>
>The balls were designed by a group of divers who were looking
for a way to
>create a simple, affordable, environmentally sound
way to replicate natural
>reefs, said Todd R. Barber, president
and CEO of Reef Ball Development
>Group Ltd. in Sarasota, Fla.
>
>Barber said the first design, which resembled
a beach ball, was gradually
>refined into a structure that
entices a multitude of species, does not move
>in storms and
uses concrete additives suitable for the growth of marine
>life.
>
>He said the devices helped fish by allowing
them to hide inside and avoid
>predators and by giving them a
place to rest. Small fry tend to survive
>longer in reef balls,
he said, and fish also can conceal themselves outside
>the ball
and wait for food -- smaller bait fish -- to swim by.
>
>"They just need a place to hide and hang out," Barber said.
>
>He said that there were now about 40,000 reef
balls used in 400 projects
>around the world in the waters from
Australia to the Caribbean to the
>Middle East, and that a new
project will begin next week in Indonesia. New
>Jersey's project
is unusual, he said, because of the use of prisoners for
>labor.
>
>At Southern State
>>Correctional<< >>Facility<<, Hellriegel and a handful
>of other prisoners were hard at work last week on the project
-- a joint
>effort between the state DEP and the state
>>Department<< >>of<<
>>>Corrections<<.
>
>"It's like I'm giving back something," said Hellriegel, a
Passaic County
>man who is serving a 20-year sentence with a
10-year mandatory minimum.
>
>For Willie
Vaughan, 35, of Plainfield, serving three years for drugs, the
>project enables him to do "something constructive" that is also
good for
>the environment.
>
>"It >>kills<< time, gets me in shape, gets my mind
to focus on other
>things," Vaughan said.
>
>Andrew Morgan, 41, who is serving a seven-year sentence for
eluding
>>>police<< in a high-speed chase, said he
enjoyed the work and the whole
>notion that he was helping the
fish.
>
>Morgan, who is from the Manasquan area,
said he grew up on the water, loved
>to fish and had three sons
who also enjoyed fishing. When he is released,
>he said, he
intends to head out to a rock jetty and tell people about the
>"fish bowls" he has helped build.
>
>"It fits right in with the environment," Morgan said. "The
potential is
>great with these things."
>
>For More Information
>For details on adopting a
reef, contact the reef program at the New Jersey
>Department of
Environmental Protection Division of Fish, Game and Wildlife
>at
609-748-2020.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b27 : Sun Nov 21 1999 - 18:27:21 PST