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Volusia County is cheering the success of a series of artificial reefs established earlier this year.

They are the shallowest and nearest-shore artificial reefs in northeast Florida.

The reefs are located off the coast of New Smyrna Beach and Daytona Beach Shores.

And Joe Nolin of Volusia County’s Coastal Division says they were covered with barnacles a month after they were created back in July.

“It was just incredible how quickly the material colonized on the reef and began to attract fish, shrimp and crab including mangrove snapper, Atlantic spadefish, ocean triggerfish and gray triggerfish.”

The reefs are constructed of 5,200 tons of waste from an Interstate 95 widening project and other construction.

Nolin hopes the reefs attract nearshore fishermen, kayakers and paddle boarders.