Cleaning water: Groups team up to bring mini artificial reefs to docks across SWFL

Ocean Habitats, a company known for installing artificial reefs, is making a splash to help our water and the creatures in it.

Pelican Ops partnered them to place “mini reefs” under a dock in Fort Myers beach Thursday.

These artificial reefs can filter 70,000 gallons of water a day when they’re fully developed after about nine months, according to David Wolff, director of ground operations with Ocean Habitats.

“Actually, it’s easy,” said Troy Werner, the owner of marine contracting company Pelican Ops. “It’s an amazing design.”

With the Mini Reef Plus, which is installed at the Fort Myers Beach dock, it means more filtration and more help for marine life compared to their standard size artificial reef which can filter 30,000 gallons a day.

Wolff explains, “They do better with fish and crab, growing in them. You get over 1,100 critters yearly to grow up to full size.”

Werner said when he heard about the group, he wanted to dive in too, “It’s super exciting to actually be here in the water knowing that as much of a struggle as it can be with the times we’re in, that it’s fun because I’m doing something that brings gratification and it’s cleaning the environment.”

The work doesn’t stop in Fort Myers Beach. The crew checked on a reef already in use at a Sanibel home., and it was clearly drawing in unique sea life, like a sea horse.

Ocean Habitats says more than four-thousand mini reefs are in the water today, with almost 200-million hours of combined time in the water.