New
Artificial Reef in Lake Pontchartrain
Posted:
1/30/04
A new
artificial reef was recently established in Lake Pontchartrain
through a partnership of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife
and Fisheries and the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation.
“These should promote fishing opportunities in the lake,”
said Mark Schexnayder, Louisiana Sea Grant Fisheries Extension
Agent in the LSU Agricultural Center, who serves the project
in an advisory capacity.
Eighty
1,400-pound concrete balls were placed into the lake about
five miles south of Mandeville on January 14. The dome-shaped,
hollow cement structures with large holes allow water to flow
through them, creating an underwater habitat for algae and
plankton — food for many recreational species. This
fifth artificial reef in Lake Pontchartrain is built on an
abandoned exploratory oil and gas drilling location. Earlier,
three similar reefs were established next to shell pads that
used to support oil and gas drilling barges.
The first
artificial reef in Lake Pontchartrain was constructed in 2001
with mounds of crushed limestone rubble spread over a two-acre
area in Orleans Parish about 1.25 miles east of the Lakefront
Airport runway. In it, fish feeding is promoted by disruptions
in the bottom current caused by the varied relief of the mounds.
All five reefs are marked with yellow buoys.
The Louisiana
Department of Wildlife and Fisheries is monitoring the reefs
to study their effectiveness.
Click
here for
a map and more information about all five artificial reefs.
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