OC Reef Foundation Working On Largest Project Ever

Foundation this week is continuing one of the most prolific times in its history, amassing truckloads of pre-cast concrete pipe near the harbor in West Ocean City for deployment on the growing artificial reef system off the coast of the resort in the coming weeks.

Truckload after truckload of concrete pipes have been arriving in West Ocean City over the last week or so including another early Monday morning. The concrete pipes are being stacked on a large vacant lot along the south side of the harbor in West Ocean City, the use of which has been generously donated by Dan and Janet Trimper. The Ocean City Reef Foundation has acquired 80 truckloads of the concrete pipes and they will eventually find their way to the ocean floor on the foundation’s permitted artificial reef sites.

Reef Foundation director Captain Monty Hawkins said this week some of the pipes have already been loaded onto the foundation’s smaller barge and are ready for deployment as soon as weather and sea conditions improve. In the larger picture, the Reef Foundation has acquired the use of a huge, 100-plus-foot retired Army Corps of Engineers barge, which will be used to haul the pipes out to the reef sites. The huge barge will be anchored at a central location off the coast and the pipes will be deployed on the growing reef sites.

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