December 20, 2020  —

‘twas days before Christmas, and all through the canal,creatures were stirring, doing good for the locale.
Mini reefs were hung under docks with care,
in hopes that sea creatures soon would be there …

Happy New Year to all, and to our Dock Owners thanks for joining the project and spreading the word.

On December 20, the Grand Canal Regeneration project team delivered Christmas cheer to 17 Key families, installing 23 new mini reefs under their docks.   SKA members and Phil Chiocchio worked with David Wolff and his son, David of Ocean Habitats, Inc., to install the under-dock mini reefs near the Grand Canal entrance and a few in the village in just five hours.

The rain and dark did not dissuade the crew from its appointed task.  Mini reefs were installed without problems, complete with a red Christmas bow.  Homeowners were delighted with the prospect of helping the environment, improving the canal water quality, and contributing their reef’s habitat to help re-populate the canal with new sea life.

SKA volunteers Jean Cannon planned the installation route and David Vossolo measured water clarity.   Paul Westpheling documented the installs with pictures and interviews.  David provided a mini reef location map, including older, previously installed mini reefs.  Phil hung our new sign on the trailer and filmed installations and the underwater environments.

In weeks ahead, we will collect more information about the canal water around the pilot installs.  Water clarity and other measurements will be collected, and results posted on the website.

We are planning for the next section of mini reef installs in January.

Visit our website https://siestakeyassociation.com/grand-canal-regeneration/. to learn more about our project.  If you are interested and would like more information, contact Jean Cannon at siestakeyassoc1947@gmail.com.