DivePro - Info

By KATE SPINNER



kate.spinner@heraldtribune.com

CHARLOTTE COUNTY -- Englewood's most infamous abandoned building has not panned out as a home for humans, but it could become a refuge for fish.

County leaders plan to demolish and then submerge the long-vacant condo complex, dubbed the "Beirut building," and turn it into a reef 15 miles west of Stump Pass.

Whether they are made of old Army tanks or demolished buildings, artificial reefs attract fish by bringing barren sea floors to life.

Once the reef is in place, soft corals and seaweed attach to the hard surfaces and tiny fish start to dart in and out of the new hiding spots. Angelfish, butterfly fish and sport fish such as red snapper, grouper, snook and cobia arrive on the scene.

Naturally, fishermen and scuba divers follow.

On Sunday, 20 boats were congregated at an older reef near Palm Island, said Jim Joseph, of Fantasea Scuba in Port Charlotte.

A new reef is sorely needed, he said.

"It will give people more places to go," Joseph said.

Artificial reefs also help boost the fish population by giving fish more places to live and breed, said Robert Lugiewicz, manager of Fishin' Franks, a Port Charlotte tackle shop.

"Natural reefs get pounded by commercial and recreational fishermen," he said.

Although area scuba divers and fishermen are excited about the prospect of a new reef, the owner of the infamous building that looms windowless and graffiti-covered over the banks of Gottfried Creek is not pleased.

"I think it's rather scandalous," said Pieter Bezemer, whose company, Edgewater 2000 LLC, owns the concrete shell of a building and aims to keep it standing.

He said Edgewater poured $3 million into the building, called Vizcaya on the Bay, before frustrated Englewood residents renamed it the Beirut building in the late 1980s.

Charlotte County ordered the building demolished in May, but Bezemer appealed in court.

"If they want to buy the building and make a reef out of it, tell them to call me and bring their checkbook," Bezemer said.

Once the county receives permission to go through with the demolition it will own the rights to the concrete, said county attorney Janette Knowlton. She said she had hoped to receive a judge's ruling by now.

If the county cannot manage to demolish the building, other materials may be used to build the reef, as long as the county gets a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers.

The Coral Creek Bridge and some old culverts at the landfill are in the lineup of materials to be used.

Betty Staugler, the county's marine agent, applied for the permit this week and hopes it will be issued within a few months.

As soon as the county gets the go-ahead, it can start hauling the concrete out on a barge and shoving the rubble into the water with a front-end loader.

The county can also lower reef material with a crane or strap concrete to an old barge and sink the whole thing.

Staugler said the reef would be the county's farthest offshore and its deepest, at 65 feet.

The county has six reefs in the Gulf, but has not received permission to build a new one since 2003.

The newest reef would be named the Captain Jeff Steele Reef in memory of a Port Charlotte fisherman who died in July while working on an Alaskan fishing boat.

Steele had been leading the effort to get the reef in place before he died.

The reefs come at little or no cost to the county because the materials are donated. The only costs are for permitting, staff time, inspections and transporting material.

Eager to see more reefs, fishermen and scuba divers often raise the money needed to put them in place.

Fundraisers for the Steele Reef plan to gather $12,500 in donations, some of which will be raised this weekend during a poker run that starts at 11 a.m. at Coyotes Bar & Grill in Port Charlotte.

Joseph, of Fantasea Scuba, said supporters have already raised more than $8,000.

Source - Herald Tribune