ADCNR, APC Build Reef In Gulf

The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) has teamed with Alabama Power Co. (APC) to build a new reef using end-of-life concrete poles and tower segments. Named after the ADCNR commissioner, the Christopher M. Blankenship Reef Zone covers 65 miles of Gulf of Mexico bottom between 10 and 20 miles off the Alabama coast. The reef is to be prime habitat for red snapper, Alabama’s signature reef species, as well as gray triggerfish and gray (mangrove) snapper. This is the fourth reef deployed by APC and uses concrete distribution and transmission poles and steel lattice from transmission towers. The Reefmaker of Orange Beach was used to deploy the material. There are now approximately 10,000 artificial reefs within the 1,200 square miles of reef bottom in the Alabama Artificial Reef Program.