Artificial Reef Program

About the Maryland Artificial Reef Initiative (MARI)

The Maryland Artificial Reef Initiative includes over 60 private, state, and federal partners, and acts as a funding mechanism (using private and corporate donations) for reef development in Maryland. It is a volunteer organization dedicated to preserving, restoring and creating fish habitat in tidewater Maryland. Funding for the Maryland Artificial Reef Initiative comes from the Coastal Conservation Association, Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the coalition of donors and partners.

Artificial Reef Committee

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources Artificial Reef Committee has the duty of advising the Director of Fishing and Boating Services on all matters referred to the committee regarding the development, monitoring and management of artificial reefs in Maryland Bay and Ocean waters. For a list of Artificial Reef Committee members and information on past and upcoming meetings, see the Artificial Reef Committee Membership and Meetings link on the left side of this page.

Maryland Artificial Reef Plan

The "Artificial Reef Management Plan for Maryland" (Loftus and Stone, 2007) is the primary guidance document for the Maryland Artificial Reef Program and the Maryland Artificial Reef Initiative. This document gives a history of the older reef programs in Maryland going back to the 1960's. It lays out the purpose, goals and objectives of the Artificial Reef Program and provides a management framework for artificial reef projects, including guidelines on permits, siting, materials, construction, (deployments) and monitoring.

Here is the final Maryland Artificial Reef Plan without Appendix B (1 MB).