Captain Jimmy Moore can definitely see an increase in fishing boat activity just off the Little River inlet over the past 15 years or so.
"Used to be, you might see one or two boats out here," Moore said on Wednesday morning. "Now, you can see 10 or 15 just depending on the weekend, and maybe more than that."
That could be due to two new artificial reefs that sprang up starting in 1997. As part of a joint effort between the Department of Natural Resources and the South Carolina National Guard, old barges, cement mixing trucks, tires, and concrete blocks, among other things, make up the reefs at Little River Offshore Reef (about 11 miles off shore) and Jim Caudle Reef (about three miles off shore.)
"Out here, basically, it's a sandy, flat bottom for miles, and so the fish doesn't have much habitat," said Moore. "But if you put something down there for them to hide around, it really helps. They're really done a great job."
"Within just a couple of months, marine life is already attached," said John Barr with the S.C. National Guard. "They'll already be around them within the next few days."
As part of this year's contribution, crews dropped more than 20 former S.C. National Guard armored personnel carriers onto the reef sites on Wednesday morning.
"The trolling has picked up," said Moore. "The little fish, the next biggest fish, a little bigger, and then the next one a little bigger, and (the reef) really has improved (the wildlife)," he said.
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