THE Minister for Primary Industries Katrina Hodgkinson, and Member for South Coast Shelley Hancock, have announced the $200,000 expansion of the popular St Georges Basin estuarine artificial reef has now commenced.
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“210 Reef Balls have arrived on site and are ready to be deployed and tactically placed in the area to attract more fish such as flathead, bream, mulloway and snapper,” Ms Hodgkinson said.
“Already the State’s largest estuarine reef, the expansion of the St Georges Basin reef is a great example of how funds from the NSW Recreational Fishing Trusts are being invested back into projects and initiatives which directly benefit recreational fishers.
Ms Hancock said “The St Georges Basin reef extension will take place on a grand scale, and required about 14 trucks to transport the Reef Balls, each weighing about 700 kilograms, to the site.
“It will take approximately two weeks to carefully deploy the concrete balls from a barge, weather permitting and once deployed, St Georges Basin will contain over a thousand Reef Balls,” said Ms Hancock.
The NSW Government has deployed about 2800 concrete modules for estuarine artificial reefs across the State, to date.
Minister Hodgkinson said the expansion of the already successful St Georges Basin reef complements the existing estuarine artificial reefs along the coastline of NSW in the Bellinger River, Lake Macquarie, Botany Bay, Lake Conjola, and Merimbula Lake.
“The NSW Government is proud to support the development, which is a major boost for the local tourism industry and economy,” Ms Hodgkinson said.
“The recreational fishing industry in NSW is an incredibly important one, estimated at bringing about $1.6 billion in expenditure each year, and creating about 14,000 jobs.”
Further information about the St Georges Basin estuarine artificial reef can be found online at www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fisheries
Offshore reef developing
Meanwhile further out in the ocean, the Shoalhaven offshore artificial reef was deployed in January 2015 and is the state's second offshore artificial reef.
The 20 specially designed artificial reef modules used to create the reef stand 5 metres (15 feet) tall and weigh over 23 tonne each (over 470 tonne of reef).
The modules are built to last a minimum of 30 years (but will likely be much longer!) and are designed to withstand the forces generated by a 1 in 100 year storm, remaining perfectly in position.
The modules will collectively form a complex reef system with large caves, crevices and vertical relief to suit a wide range of fish species. The artificial structure is being monitored by NSW DPI scientists to assess the effectiveness of the reef.
From the DPI Facebook page:
Did you know that the layout of the new Shoalhaven offshore artificial reef is designed to create the largest fishable area possible.
There are five individual groups, each with 4 modules per group in it. By placing the groups approximately 50 metres from each other, fish will use the whole system as one large reef, meaning the areas between the modules and groups (and also just outside of the reef boundaries) will also produce good fishing!
After two weeks in the water, baitfish are already starting to gather on the reef, see the photo of a sounder with bait gathering above the reef structure.
For a diagram of the layout and the GPS coordinates of the reef area, visit the artificial reefs webpage at: