Miami Dade Reef Guard Association

In 2009 the Florida Legislature passed the Coral Reef Protection Act allowing fines for damage to the reef caused by vessel groundings and anchors.
In 2009 the reef adjacent to Miami Dade County had no mooring buoys for boaters.
Reef Guard, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, was started in 2009 to respond to this situation
With public donations and some funding from DEP a total of 42 buoys were installed by 2012
Following successful lobbying Miami Dade County Environment Resources Management is now fully funding the buoy program since 2018.

The second objective to support artificial reef deployment serves to reduce pressure from divers on the natural reef by providing artificial reef dives sites. The first deployment also carried out in 2009 was the sinking of the 209 ft. long cargo vessel 'The Ophelia Brian' about 3.5 nautical miles east of Key Biscayne.

During 2022 we completed the following project. The renewal of the rebar diver navigation aids at two of our connectivity projects, namely the Anchorage Site (aka The Army Tanks) and the Key Biscayne site (aka The Belcher Wreck Trek).  A total of 120 pieces of rebar were placed, 60 at each site.

In 2023 and 2024 we have a project to sink an abandoned freighter, M/V Borocho, currently moored on the Miami River, as an artificial reef about 4 miles east of Key Biscayne in 125 ft. of water depth, beyond the natural coral reef.  The owner of this vessel has already signed an 'agreement to donate' document.  We are currently working on complying with the Miami Dade Department for Environmental Resource Management (DERM) requirements for this sinking.  The project is estimated to cost between $300k and $400k.