Girl Scout creates artificial reef in Oleta River to shelter marine life, achieves award
By Elizabeth Baier
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
July 10, 2006
Rebecca Schultz has learned that combining the principles of Girl Scouts
with her passion for the marine environment can make for some really cool --
and eco-friendly -- creations.
Scouting has taught Schultz discipline to work with others, responsibility
to use resources wisely and passion to help make the world a better place.
And her hobby as a scuba diver has revealed to her the importance of
preserving the vast underwater world.
So on Saturday, Schultz showed 39 of her fellow scouts what she's been
working on for the last year and a half -- creating 30 artificial reefs out
of concrete molds to help increase native marine life in the Oleta River in
North Miami Beach and the Atlantic Ocean off Golden Beach.
"I've always been a water bug," said Schultz, 17, who lives in Sunrise.
"But when I started diving two years ago, I noticed that some of the reefs
were deteriorating."
That's when she embarked on a project to make some artificial reefs of her
own.
With the help of Allan Phipps, her marine biology teacher at South
Plantation High School, Schultz applied for and received a $4,500 from the
Reef Ball Foundation and another $2,500 grant from the Girl Scouts of the
United States of America to complete the project. The scouts' award was one
of only 14 nationwide and the only one in Florida, according to Jodi
Stewart, manager of the Girl Scouts' Linking Girls to the Land program.
Schultz worked with Miami-Dade County and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
to design the semi-circular artificial reefs molds, which weigh between 200
and 1,500 pounds apiece, according to Phipps. Once completed, they were
dropped slowly into the water using a crane and buoys, Schultz said.
"The reef balls work really, really well," Phipps said. "They're relatively
easy to make and it's a simple concept."
The project also helped Schultz meet the requirements for the Gold Award,
the Girl Scouts' highest award for completing a project that fulfills a need
within the scout's community, as well as a required project for her marine
biology class. On the school project, Schultz has been working with her
classmates Sara Yinger, 17, and Veronica Lafranchise, 17, who is also a Girl
Scout.
On Saturday, Schultz and Lafranchise took some of their fellow scouts
snorkeling near one reef, which was submerged in the Oleta River on March
25. They taught the girls how to test the water's oxygen and Ph levels, as
well as use GPS, or Global Positioning System, navigation to locate items
above and below the water.
"It's introducing me to some of the things I'm going to learn next year in
marine biology, so it's good," said Christina Eubanks, 16, of Cooper City.
And as for the reefs, they seem to be working well, judging by some of the
sea life they are sheltering.
"There are some yellowtail, parrot fish and angel fish near the reef in the
ocean," Lafranchise said. "In [the Oleta River], we've seen some sea squirts
and sea urchins."
Elizabeth Baier can be reached at ebaier@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4637.
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