The Mini Reefs clean about 30,000 gallons of water
per day and they help hundreds of crabs and fish
grow up every year. More than 150 species of filter
feeding animals, like oysters, land on and attach themselves
and live their lives on the Mini Reefs.They filter
water as it passes by, feeding on the green
phytoplankton and other microorganisms in the
water.The Mini Reef also becomes a home for fish,
shrimp and crabs. It shelters the animals and also
provides food. All of this life inside attracts larger
predators, so after a short time, an explosion of new
fish are living around or visiting the dock daily. Each
one of the mini reefs develops its own little
ecosystem.
Small shrimp and baby fish use the structure as a
safe place to avoid predators, but soon other
residents arrive. Sea squirts and oysters grow on the
mini reef and spend their days eating green plankton.
The mini reef mimics the environment that is
normally found in the prop root system of mangrove
trees.This natural environment was long ago
removed from area waters when large-scale coastal
development took place in the 1950s and 1960s.
Where there were once mangrove forests, there are
now canal systems with seawalls and boat docks.
Typically these canals have poor water quality
because of the surrounding land uses and a lack of
tidal flushing. The canals are lined with expensive
waterfront homes, restoring natural habitats would
be nearly impossible.
The Maurans weren’t even aware of Mini Reefs
until last December when her daughter, Louise
Mauran Nadler, purchased one as a gift for her.
“I hope more people with canal homes on the
island will consider getting one of these,” Mrs. Mauran
said. “We all need to be doing more to help the
environment and this is an inexpensive, efficient way
to help maintain healthy waterways.”
22 GASPARILLA ISLAND May/June 2019
A beautiful panorama of underwater life colors has
grown on this Mini Reef.
Boca Grande seasonal resident Jacque Hoyt was
there the day the Mini Reef was installed. She
plans on getting one for her home in the future.
“I think it’s a great concept,” she said. “To have
one structure that can clean up that much water
in one day ... it’s incredible.”
Wolff had worked on an artificial reef as a
University of South Florida marine biology student
in the 1990s. At the time, the focus was cleaning
water for the aquaculture industry, but when he
retired after a successful career in real estate Wolff
revived the technology to re-create habitats in the
“biological deserts” of canals found along Florida’s
coast.
“We were working on creating the perfect
habitat for aquaculture because the biomass filters
an enormous amount of water,” he said. “We set
a 100,000-foot containment boom around the
habitats and the water was clear in 24 hours – we
had to pump dirty canal water back into the
system to keep the creatures alive. Of course,
most Florida canals flush with tides and are loaded
with nutrients from adjacent landscapes, so
starving marine creatures isn’t likely.”
More than 150 species of filter feeding
animals like oysters land on, attach and live
their lives on Mini Reefs.