Apalachicola Artificial Reef Association

02/19/2026

Franklin County has agreed to apply for a 60-thousand-dollar grant through the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation commission to enhance an artificial reef off the Franklin County Coast.

Grayson Shepherd, who represents the Apalachicola Reef Association, said he will apply for the grant for the county, while another group called the Organization for Artificial Reefs will apply for the same 60-thousand-dollar grant.

If both grants are awarded, they will pool the money to purchase materials to add to the Franklin County 30-mile reef.

That reef is near S-Tower, 30 miles offshore, directly between Apalachicola and Carrabelle.

It is 105 feet deep.

Shepherd said the county has successfully applied for this same grant in the past and it helped create the Buddy Ward Artificial Reef off St. George Island.

08/14/2025

Yesterday’s deployment of 6 memorial Reefs at the Buddy Ward site off Franklin County FL.

01/29/2022

Plans for a new artificial reef off Dog Island continue to move forward.

The 30-mile reef permit application from the Apalachicola Reef Association has been fully executed and submitted to the Army Corps of Engineers for review and permitting.

The Apalachicola Reef Association which recently began work on a reef about 8 miles off the Bob Sikes Cut is now planning a second artificial reef in much deeper water.

They are calling it the Franklin County 30 mile reef and it would be located in about 100 feet of water.

The reef area would be about one a a half nautical miles by about a half nautical mile with about 12 reef drop zones on the site.

Franklin County commissioners have agreed to act as the government body, which means it will sign off on permits as each section of the reef is created just as it has for the Buddy Ward reef off the Bob Sikes Cut.

12/31/2021

Franklin County commissioners have agreed to act as the government body on a proposed artificial reef site about 32 miles off the east end of Dog Island.

The commission delayed the action by two weeks to insure that the new reef will not impact any other fisheries, particularly shrimpers.

The Apalachicola Reef Association which recently began work on a reef about 8 miles off the Bob Sikes Cut is now planning a second artificial reef in much deeper water.

They are calling it the Franklin County 30 mile reef and it would be located in about 100 feet of water.

The reef area will be about one a a half nautical miles by about a half nautical mile with about 12 reef drop zones on the site.

By serving as the government body, Franklin County will sign off on permits as each section of the reef is created just as it has for the Buddy Ward reef off the Bob Sikes Cut.

07/04/2021

Happy Independence Day!

06/26/2021

06/25/2021

The news segment about the Reef Ball Deployment

The 8-foot tall pyramid-shaped reefs were carefully placed on the sandy bottom of the gulf Thursday afternoon, designed to create shelter for fish like snapper and grouper, as well as other sea life.

06/25/2021

Reef Ball Deployment 8 miles from the cut in State Waters!

06/23/2021

We are so excited to announce the new date and time for the reef ball deployment!

06/13/2021

This coming Thursday June 17th is going to be an exciting day for St George Island. We're getting our first new artificial reef since the old SGI bridge spans were dumped in 2004! Tentative time for deployment is 1pm so if you're on the beach or on a boat, be sure to glance towards the southwest and maybe you'll see the ship with a crane lowering 35 concrete pyramids into the water. The site is in State waters roughly 8 miles out at a depth of 40'. These structures will attract snapper, grouper, flounder, king and Spanish mackerels, cobia, etc.... The exact coordinates for each pyramid will be published immediately following deployment.
This has been a 5 year project finally coming to fruition!


PRESS RELEASE The Franklin County Commission, in coordination with the Apalachicola Artificial Reef Association (the “AARA”) eagerly look forward to the first deployment of artificial reef modules in the Buddy Ward Memorial Artificial Reef permitted site located in Florida state water approximately eight (8) miles south of Bob Sikes Cut of St. George Island. This inaugural deployment is taking place pursuant to a grant awarded by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (“FWC”) to the Franklin County Commission. The artificial reef modules are expected to be deployed on Thursday, June 17, 2021 (weather permitting) by Walter Marine located in Orange Beach, Alabama. 35 Florida Limestone reef units or modules (8ft. Tall with 10 ft. base tetrahedrons at 6,000 lbs each) are to be placed in the Buddy Ward permit site in 5 patch reefs consisting of seven (7) reef units per patch. The total weight of the modules is estimated at 105 tons.This initial or inaugural artificial reef deployment into the Buddy Ward permit site is just the beginning of the ongoing efforts of the Franklin County, Florida Commission and the AARA to expand artificial reef structures off the coast of St George Island, in order to an ecologically stable marine environment resulting in increased conservation, recreation, research and education opportunities. Please feel free to visit the web site of the AARA (https:/www.apalachicolareef.org ), the FWC(https://myfwc.com/fishing/saltwater/artificial-reefs), the Apalachicola Bay Chamber of Commerce(https://apalachicolabay.org) and Walter Marine (https://reefmaker.com

About ReefMaker The Reefmaker/Walter Marine deployed its first artificial reef in 1986. Today they are the largest reef builders in the United States with over 50,000 reefs deployed. All of our artificial reefs feature our patented design of natural reef like material. These artificial reefs provide...