Reef CCA - Deck Barge 2

Reef CCA — Deck Barge 2 is an intermediate artificial reef site in Georgia's offshore Atlantic waters, a companion structure to other vessels within the Coastal Communities Artificial Reef program that collectively have transformed sections of the Georgia Bight's otherwise featureless sandy bottom into productive marine habitat accessible to recreational divers. This second deck barge within the complex provides additional reef area and the variety that comes from having multiple structures of similar type deployed in proximity. The value of deploying multiple vessels within a reef complex is ecological as much as recreational. The space between structures creates corridors that fish use to move between habitats, and the variety of depths, orientations, and degrees of colonization across multiple vessels within a complex supports greater species diversity than a single structure alone can achieve. Deck Barge 2 thus contributes to the Reef CCA complex's overall ecological value as well as providing additional diving terrain for visiting divers. The marine community on this barge reflects the accumulated colonization of warm southeastern Atlantic waters, where the combination of Gulf Stream-influenced temperatures and the productive upwelling systems of the continental shelf creates conditions favorable to both fast-growing tropical-affiliated species and the more robust warm-temperate organisms that characterize the Georgia offshore ecosystem. This biogeographic position means that Reef CCA dive sites often feature species assemblages that blend tropical and warm-temperate marine communities in ways that differ from either pure tropical or pure temperate reef systems. Fish encounters at Deck Barge 2 include the grouper, snapper, amberjack, and other species that define the Atlantic Southeast's artificial reef fishing and diving experience. These species' association with hard structure in the absence of natural reef makes Georgia's artificial reef program essential for their habitat in this part of the coast, and the population densities that develop around well-managed artificial reefs reflect the effectiveness of this approach. Reef CCA's Deck Barge 2 contributes to the accessible offshore diving that Georgia's artificial reef program provides, demonstrating how coordinated reef deployment can create recreational and ecological value in marine environments where natural hard-bottom habitat is rare.