Rockaway Artificial Reef

Rockaway Artificial Reef

1.6 nautical miles south of Rockaway Beach, 1.00 sq miles
Depth: 32 - 40 ft

Not Shown:

  • 60 steel buoys
  • 2,000 tire units
side-scan sonar image of Rockaway Reef, click to enlarge

rock reef
A hopper barge full of rock

All manner of concrete, steel, and stone rubble from dredging, demolition projects, and other construction is used as artificial reef materials. This material is generally available at very low cost or free from construction companies who are more than happy to get rid of it. Transportation costs determine where this material is used by the Reef Program.


Many holes cut in sides.
It must cost a fortune to rent this giant derrick.
Type:
artificial reef, barges
Depth:
32 - 40 ft
Name Description Sunk GPS
Dump Scow
DS-109
100 ft steel Tuesday
Oct 9, 2018
40°32.614'
-73°50.098'

ShipBuildingHistory.com is a resource that I have often used to look up many of the reefs and a few of the wrecks in this website. I recently sent in an update, and received a notice that the author had passed away. The next thing that usually happens in these cases is that the website disappears when the hosting goes unpaid, so I immediately grabbed a copy for myself.

That's when I found that the original site was almost a gigabyte in size, and 95% of that was formatting. So I cleaned it up, and cleaned it up, and cleaned it up, and added some navigation structures and other niceties that you would expect. Then I posted my copy as a sub-site here: