{"id":4217,"date":"2017-06-23T02:51:40","date_gmt":"2017-06-23T06:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/?p=4217"},"modified":"2017-06-23T13:13:49","modified_gmt":"2017-06-23T17:13:49","slug":"watch-crews-build-new-artificial-reef-off-point-pleasant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/2017\/06\/watch-crews-build-new-artificial-reef-off-point-pleasant\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch: Crews Build New Artificial Reef off Point Pleasant"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"v-qhZOpkHs-1\" class=\"video-player\"><iframe title='VideoPress Video Player' aria-label='VideoPress Video Player' width='1000' height='562' src='https:\/\/videopress.com\/embed\/qhZOpkHs?hd=1&amp;cover=1&amp;loop=0&amp;autoPlay=0&amp;permalink=1&amp;muted=0&amp;controls=1&amp;playsinline=0&amp;useAverageColor=0&amp;preloadContent=metadata' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen data-resize-to-parent=\"true\" allow='clipboard-write; presentation'><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Under hot, hazy summer skies Thursday, the Jersey Shore&#8217;s newest fishing destination was born.<\/p>\n<p>Piece by piece, crews from Reicon Group, a marine construction company that usually undertakes massive development projects, spent their afternoon deploying 1,500 tons of concrete castings from a barge to the ocean floor. As a tug boat steadied the barge, a front loader pushed each piece of structure into the water, creating what will become both a habitat for marine life an a recreational angler&#8217;s paradise. The materials were donated by Garden State Precast, of Wall.<\/p>\n<p>The Manasquan Inlet reef is just 1.2 miles east of the inlet, just beyond the red &#8220;sea buoy.&#8221; It will be off-limits to commercial fishermen, and the closest reef to inland waters, making the journey to sea under 10 minutes for anglers breaking the inlet.<\/p>\n<p>The creation of the reef is the culmination of a long and drawn-out political fight between recreational and commercial anglers. Recreational anglers have argued for years that a tax on fishing equipment and marine fuel help build reefs, only so they can lined with commercial pots, making them inaccessible to the average angler. In exchange for allowing commercial pots to remain on some reefs, the state agreed to build two new reefs which will be reserved for recreational anglers only. One of those is the Manasquan Inlet reef \u2013 the other will be located in Delaware Bay.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4218\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/reef_2.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"Structure is deployed into the ocean as part of the Manasquan Inlet Reef. (Photo: Daniel Nee)\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4218\" class=\"size-large wp-image-4218\" src=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/reef_2-1024x681.jpg\" alt=\"Structure is deployed into the ocean as part of the Manasquan Inlet Reef. (Photo: Daniel Nee)\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/reef_2-1024x681.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/reef_2-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/reef_2-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/reef_2-632x420.jpg 632w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/reef_2-640x425.jpg 640w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/reef_2-681x453.jpg 681w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/reef_2.jpg 1444w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4218\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Structure is deployed into the ocean as part of the Manasquan Inlet Reef. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Peter Clarke, a biologist with the state&#8217;s&nbsp;Bureau of Marine Fisheries, has led the state&#8217;s reef program for years. He was on hand Thursday for the deployment, said the site was chosen because of its easy accessibility for a large number of anglers.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What\u2019s great about this reef is that it\u2019s in state water, so there\u2019s no commercial fishing on it at all, and it\u2019s obviously very close,&#8221; Clarke said. &#8220;What we were looking for was non-descript bottom \u2013 an area that had no structure currently on it \u2013 and a place that will be utilized by a lot of anglers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4219\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/reef_3.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-1\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"Structure is deployed into the ocean as part of the Manasquan Inlet Reef. (Photo: Daniel Nee)\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4219\" class=\"size-large wp-image-4219\" src=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/reef_3-1024x681.jpg\" alt=\"Structure is deployed into the ocean as part of the Manasquan Inlet Reef. (Photo: Daniel Nee)\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/reef_3-1024x681.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/reef_3-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/reef_3-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/reef_3-632x420.jpg 632w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/reef_3-640x425.jpg 640w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/reef_3-681x453.jpg 681w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/reef_3.jpg 1444w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4219\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Structure is deployed into the ocean as part of the Manasquan Inlet Reef. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_4220\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/reef_4.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-2\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"Structure is deployed into the ocean as part of the Manasquan Inlet Reef. (Photo: Daniel Nee)\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4220\" class=\"size-large wp-image-4220\" src=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/reef_4-1024x681.jpg\" alt=\"Structure is deployed into the ocean as part of the Manasquan Inlet Reef. (Photo: Daniel Nee)\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/reef_4-1024x681.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/reef_4-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/reef_4-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/reef_4-632x420.jpg 632w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/reef_4-640x425.jpg 640w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/reef_4-681x453.jpg 681w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/reef_4.jpg 1444w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4220\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Structure is deployed into the ocean as part of the Manasquan Inlet Reef. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The 1,500 tons of concrete will make the reef especially popular for drift fishing, the primary method of catching summer flounder and black sea bass from boats. Other reefs are designed with structure to which boats can anchor to catch other species. The Manasquan Inlet reef is located between two other reefs \u2013 the Sea Girt and Axel Carlson reefs. While smaller in area, the new reef will likely become very popular, and the concrete castings are just the beginning of what will be sunk there.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s going to be an exciting year for the Manasquan Inlet reef,&#8221; said Clarke.&#8221;We have an 87-foot dragger that&#8217;s going to be deployed later this month, and we&#8217;re getting the Goethals Bridge.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In August, crews will begin deploying material from the former bridge that connects New Jersey and Staten Island. A new Goethals Bridge recently opened.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We also have a 92-foot fire tug boat,&#8221; Clarke said, which will be sunk as a memorial reef for first responders.<\/p>\n<p>Funding for the reef was also provided by the&nbsp;Great Point Pleasant Charter Boat Association, Ocean Reef Foundation and SportsFishingFund.org.<\/p>\n<p><strong>If You Go<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3955\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/NEW_REEF.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-3\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"he new Manaquan Inlet Reef site, authorized this week. (Illustration: Daniel Nee)\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3955\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3955\" src=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/NEW_REEF-1024x580.jpg\" alt=\"he new Manaquan Inlet Reef site, authorized this week. (Illustration: Daniel Nee)\" width=\"640\" height=\"363\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/NEW_REEF-1024x580.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/NEW_REEF-300x170.jpg 300w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/NEW_REEF-768x435.jpg 768w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/NEW_REEF-741x420.jpg 741w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/NEW_REEF-640x363.jpg 640w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/NEW_REEF-681x386.jpg 681w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/NEW_REEF-1021x580.jpg 1021w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/NEW_REEF.jpg 1064w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3955\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The new Manaquan Inlet Reef site, authorized this week. (Illustration: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_4226\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Screen-Shot-2017-06-23-at-2.37.29-AM.png\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-4\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"Coordinates of the Manasquan Inlet Reef (Source: NJDEP)\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4226\" class=\"size-large wp-image-4226\" src=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Screen-Shot-2017-06-23-at-2.37.29-AM-1024x284.png\" alt=\"Coordinates of the Manasquan Inlet Reef (Source: NJDEP)\" width=\"640\" height=\"178\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Screen-Shot-2017-06-23-at-2.37.29-AM-1024x284.png 1024w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Screen-Shot-2017-06-23-at-2.37.29-AM-300x83.png 300w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Screen-Shot-2017-06-23-at-2.37.29-AM-768x213.png 768w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Screen-Shot-2017-06-23-at-2.37.29-AM-640x177.png 640w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Screen-Shot-2017-06-23-at-2.37.29-AM-681x189.png 681w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Screen-Shot-2017-06-23-at-2.37.29-AM.png 1216w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4226\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Coordinates of the Manasquan Inlet Reef (Source: NJDEP)<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"fcbkbttn_buttons_block\" id=\"fcbkbttn_left\"><div class=\"fb-share-button fcbkbttn_large_button \" data-href=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/2017\/06\/watch-crews-build-new-artificial-reef-off-point-pleasant\/\" data-type=\"button_count\" data-size=\"large\"><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Under hot, hazy summer skies Thursday, the Jersey Shore&#8217;s newest fishing destination was born. Piece by piece, crews from Reicon Group, a marine construction company that usually undertakes massive development projects, spent their afternoon deploying 1,500 tons of concrete castings from a barge to the ocean floor. As a tug boat steadied the barge, a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[16,18],"tags":[1098,233,33,29,1096,1099,154,1097,20],"class_list":["post-4217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-boating-fishing","category-featured","tag-artificial-reef","tag-fishing","tag-jersey-shore","tag-lavallette-nj-news","tag-manasquan-inlet","tag-manasquan-inlet-reef","tag-new-jersey","tag-reef","tag-seaside-heights-nj-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/reef_3.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgsn9q-161","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}