BRANCH OFFICE

513 US Highway 1  Suite 215 North Palm Beach, FL 33408

MAIN OFFICE

665 SE 10th Street, Suite 104
Deerfield Beach, FL 33441

Phone 954.591.1219

Fax 954.653.2981

South Boca Raton was completed in early December 2009. Monitoring of offshore and patch reef habitats adjacent to the borrow site for North Boca Raton is conducted bi-weekly during project construction. Long-term monitoring of patch reef and nearshore hardbottom, including mitigation artificial reef habitat at Red Reef Park, will be performed to evaluate the potential effects of longshore and cross-shore transport of the beach fill. Coastal Eco-Group scientists are performing all permit-required hardbottom monitoring activities, data reduction and statistical analyses in the evaluation of potential project-related impacts and technical monitoring report preparation in fulfillment of state and federal permit conditions.

The North and South Boca Raton project area shorelines were previously nourished in 1998 and 2002, respectively. The North Boca Raton Beach Nourishment Project involves beach fill placement along 1.45 miles of shoreline from Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) Reference Monument R-205 to 181 feet south of R-212. The South Boca Raton Beach Nourishment project consists of beach fill placement along 5,060 feet of shoreline between FDEP monuments R-223 and R-228. Both projects are being constructed during the winter of 2010.

Under subcontract to the coastal engineering firm, Applied Technology & Management, Inc., Coastal Eco-Group serves as the biological monitoring consultant to the City of Boca Raton. Coastal Eco-Group scientists, working in conjunction with the City of Boca Raton and FDEP regulatory staff, revised the hardbottom monitoring programs to meet current FDEP standards. In situ monitoring tasks include sedimentation monitoring, nearshore and offshore hardbottom/ reef benthic community monitoring utilizing point quads and digital video sampling of permanent transects, stony coral fate tracking, foraging sea turtle abundance surveys and annual fish censuses on the mitigation artificial reef and nearshore hardbottom in South Boca Raton, and diver mapping of the nearshore hardbottom edge. Biological monitoring is conducted through all phases of construction activities, pre-construction through three years following completion of beach nourishment.

The pre-construction baseline survey for North Boca Raton was completed in November 2009, and the pre-construction survey for

2010 North and South Boca Raton Beach Nourishment Projects Biological Monitoring of Offshore Reefs, Nearshore Hardbottom and Nearshore Mitigation Reefs