In 2026, Texas deployed 400 tons of concrete railroad ties off Port O’Connor; the material was arranged into two piles at an artificial reef site

Recently, Texas conducted a recycling experiment of its own in the water. According to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), 400 tonnes of concrete railroad ties were created into two ‘reef material’ piles at the Port O’Connor Reef (MI-562) in April 2026. This has helped give extra structure to this flat section of the Gulf floor.

While railroad ties don’t sound particularly exciting, they are just strong pieces of wood that hold the rail lines up. However, the State of Texas has a great track record of creating second lives for strong objects. TPWD’s artificial reef program page states that since 1990, they have created artificial reefs using old oil rigs and intentionally sunken ships like the 473-foot USTS Texas Clipper. Adding concrete ties is another less exciting addition to this list.

Why a flat seafloor needs the help


TPWD has created these reef material piles to create more complexity to an otherwise flat ocean floor. This provides shelter and feeding areas for reef-reliant fish, sea turtles, and marine life. Hard substrate provides substratum for invertebrates, supporting the food chain and providing benefits to anglers and divers. As of now, there are 3,440 acres of reef sites in Texas waters.

The Port O’Connor deployment was carried out by Friends of RGV Reef with support from the Coastal Conservation Association, funded by a $2.3 million RESTORE Act grant administered by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Separately, under the same broader RESTORE-funded program, Friends of RGV Reef also added 500 tons of clean concrete to the Rio Grande Valley Reef (PS-1105), a different site down the coast from Port O’Connor.

Do artificial reefs actually help increase fish?

This is a fair question to ask. Researchers have been looking into this for many years now. A 2020 study titled “Meta-Analysis Reveals Artificial Reefs Can Be Effective Tools for Fish Community Enhancement but Are Not One-Size-Fits-All,” published in Frontiers in Marine Science, showed that while both types of reefs generally had a similar number and diversity of fish, the type of reef could depend on where the reef was, what latitudes they were at, and what material they were made from. The study looked at 39 studies comparing fish communities found on artificial reefs with those found on natural rock and coral reefs.

The authors didn’t want to encourage widespread use of reef materials. According to NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, the team said that they do not advocate widespread application of reefing materials but do emphasise the importance of site-specific planning and assessment.

The attraction-versus-production debate

One common concern people have with creating reefs is whether they are just attracting fish from elsewhere. However, according to a 2015 paper titled “Fish attraction to artificial reefs not always harmful: a simulation study,” by Smith, Lowry and Suthers, published in Ecology and Evolution, it does not necessarily mean it can cause issues. Using a model, they found the risk of negative effects depended on factors such as the quality of the artificial reef, proximity to natural reefs, and how targeted the fishing was. This isn’t an actual study done in the Gulf of Mexico but a computer model, meaning we don’t know for sure what will happen in Port O’Connor.

The fine print worth reading

Some practical details are missing from public reporting so far: the water depth at the deployment site, and the original source of the railroad ties. TPWD monitors its reef sites over time, so data on how well these two concrete piles are colonized should emerge in future surveys. With the deployment completed in April 2026 and roughly six months of potential colonization since, the open question now isn’t whether the material went in the water, it did, but how the early biological community on it is developing, something TPWD’s ongoing monitoring should start to show.