These days, we’re jumpstarting artificial reefs with all sorts of things: cement, subway cars, ghost ships, and more—but we might not be doing so if it weren’t for pioneers with some wacky ideas in what might well be the wackiest state of all, the Sunshine State. Artificial reefs as a concept date back to pre-Christendom, at least to when the Romans built a reef of “stones and construction material” at the mouth of the harbor at Lilybaeum to protect it from the Carthaginians during the First Punic War, around 250 BCE. Similarly, Persians kept Arabian pirates at bay by blocking off the mouth of the Tigris. A floating fish-aggregating device (now known as a FAD for short) has also long been employed by the native fisherfolk of the modern-day Philippines dating as far back as anyone knows, too. In the 18th century, Japan contrived the first modern artificial reef for purposes beyond war and conflict, using rubble and rocks to grow kelp.…