Anglers made their presentation for relaxed regulations on artificial reefs and now have to wait and see if the bureaucrats will bite. Close to 100 fishermen, reef builders and governmental representatives gathered Wednesday night at an artificial reef workshop at Niceville's Camp Timpoochee to discuss modifications to Okaloosa County's federal permit that allows sunken structures in the Gulf. Destin Charter Boat Association President Mike Eller, anglers pressed their concerns about inconsistent and unreasonable regulations that restrict small operators from finding suitable materials to build artificial reefs and deploy them. Eller said a distinction needed to be drawn between public artificial reefs financed through tax dollars and private reefs paid for by individual fishermen.
Private dollars are different.
Current permit restrictions prevent reefs from being less than a quarter-inch thick, which anglers said severely limits cheap and available reef material. A representative from Eglin Air Force Base said a reduction in size requirements would make more military scrap metal available for use in the construction of reefs. Florida law requires reefs deployed in relatively shallow state waters, up to nine miles offshore, be constructed to last 20 years. Only public reefs can be permitted in state waters and these same standards are being bootstrapped onto private reefs being deployed in deeper federal waters. Anglers argued deeper reefs aren't subject to the same storm forces as shallow reefs and restrictions can be safely relaxed.