Kingfish Reef
An Artificial Reef
ABOUT.
“In 2022 Liam Lynch was commissioned to dive ‘The Rip’ Victoria’s most notoriously dangerous body of water. Liam’s brief was to document the recently deployed reef modules within four clusters at a depth of around 28 metres, a challenging task given that there is a narrow window of time between tides (slack water) when that part of Port Phillip Bay can be dived.
CLIENT
Victorian Fisheries Authority
DATE
2022
BRIEF
1st Exploritory Dive
PLACEMENT
Promotional Video
THE STORY
The Port Phillip Heads ‘Rip’ area located between Point Lonsdale and Point Nepean is a hotspot to target yellowtail kingfish, a prized recreational sportfish. As such, condensed boat traffic presents a level of compromised safety to ships and recreational vessels particularly when recreational vessels typically fish within the only shipping channel used to access ports within Port Phillip.
To increase fishing opportunities for recreational anglers and to provide an alternative safer location away from dangerous shipping channels, the VFA has deployed a total of 16 artificial reef modules within four clusters at a depth of around 28 metres. Reef modules are durable, multi-dimensional, made from environmentally friendly cement and have a large surface area for colonisation of marine plants and animals.