In 2017, the non-profit organization Friends of RGV Reef began building a self-sustaining artificial reef for red snapper and game fish in the Gulf of Mexico, about eight nautical miles off South Padre Island.

Some of the 67,000 cinder blocks installed in the RGV Reef in 2017 provide protection for juvenile red snapper. Photo courtesy: Al Alder

An estimated 250,000 fish took up immediate residence after one season’s worth of reef construction in 2017 on the RGV Reef, near South Padre Island at the southern tip of Texas.

A pair of cleaned steel-hull vessels were among the original materials used to establish the RGV Reef.

Curtis Hayungs of the Friends of RGV Reef poses with some of the 10,000 concrete railroad ties donated by BNSF Railway for the artificial reef. By stacking the ties to within 30 feet of the water's surface, the Friends of the RGV Reef hope to attract pelagics, or open-sea species, such as kingfish, sailfish and tarpon.

“This is netless aquaculture, really. The Gulf of Mexico has been good to my brother and I, and the idea that we could do something for the Gulf—to make a real difference in the reef fish population locally, if not across the Gulf—was definitely appealing,” says Gary Glick, one of the driving forces behind the RGV Reef.

In recent weeks, Enbridge’s Valley Crossing Pipeline project made a donation of $350,000 to the Friends of RGV Reef and Harte Research Institute. Among other things, this gift will pay for critical transportation of reefing material—dramatically reducing costs, and shortening the project timeline by years.

The Texas A&M Corpus Christi Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies is teaming up with Friends of RGV Reef on this project, with marine biologists offering guidance to optimize this habitat.

The bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, particularly west of the Mississippi delta, is almost exclusively featureless and flat—a “giant sand desert,” says Glick—which makes the “nursery reef” aspect of the RGV Reef its most unique and intriguing.

Low- and medium-relief aspects like cinder blocks, and concrete railroad ties arranged like pickup sticks, create myriad nooks and crannies that protect juvenile fish as they grow into adulthood, and also foster a flourishing ecosystem with a constant food supply.

South Padre Island, a resort town on a barrier island of the same name on the southern coast of Texas. Economic impact studies suggest the RGV Reef will boost the region's total economic activity by more than $6 million a year.

Divers prepare to sink one of two cleaned steel-hull vessels at the RGV Reef site in July 2017.

As of January 2018, the RGV Reef was made up of 76 box culverts, 42 round culverts, 90 highway dividers, 1,500 tons of concrete riprap, 600 tons of concrete roof tiles and 67,000 cinder blocks. From the Friends of the RGV Reef website: "The concrete was deployed to make reef patches with all sizes of material: complex reef patches always have more fish than simple ones. The patches are strung out in lines and grids to make trolling trails and spots to drift for snapper."

Cinder blocks provide one of the stepping stones of habitat for reef fish such as these red snapper. From the Friends of the RGV Reef website: "The nursery consists of 240 patches of cinder blocks and concrete roof tiles to provide habitat for age 0 to age 2 yr. old snapper. The patches are low and spread out, because when the little snapper swims over to the big reef the big fish eat the"m. Big Gulf reefs are not like coral reefs with millions of little fish hovering around so we are building low profile cover for the little fish, because we can grow lots more fish than we can attract.