You can fool Mother Nature By Cherie Jacobs Lane You can fool Mother Nature
By Cherie Jacobs Lane
STAFF WRITER
Todd Barber is banking on something fishy happening.
Well, actually, many things fishy.
Barber, 34, is president of Reef Ball Development, a young company that has created an unusual object
to be used under water as an artificial reef. What started out as an environmental hobby has grown into a
business that has attracted customers from around the world.
Reef balls are dome-shaped concrete blobs, with Swiss cheese-like holes.
The concrete's uneven surfaces encourage the growth of algae, barnacles and coral. The holes allow fish
to congregate and hide - and escape bigger fish.
``What we want to do is mimic Mother Nature,'' Barber said.
About 1,000 of Barber's reef balls are in the waters off Manatee, Sarasota and Charlotte counties.
Another 1,000 will be added this year. About 40,000 reef balls are under eight oceans, seas or gulfs
around the world.
Barber, an avid scuba diver since he was 15, came up with the idea for reef balls several years ago
because he wanted to dive near something more realistic-looking than what was available. Often
artificial reefs are old train cars, sunken ships or crumbled bridges.
``You see these, basically, trash heaps that you're diving on,'' he said. ``We were tired of looking at
square boxes or ships. We just wanted to have real reefs.''
He and about 15 of his diving and college buddies spent a week working on the first reef balls in 1992.
Now, they have perfected the design and created Reef Ball Development.
Barber moved the company from Atlanta, where most of the people lived, to south Manatee County in
August because of its access to the Gulf of Mexico and because he preferred it to Florida's east coast.
Underwater dumps
Most artificial reefs, as Barber says, are glorified garbage heaps. If you put anything in the water, things
will grow on it, scientists said.
`` `What do we have and we want to get rid of that we can make a reef out of?' '' said Jim Culter, a staff
scientist with Mote Marine Laboratories who specializes in the sea bottom.
Typically, reefs are formed from concrete drainage culverts, old boats, junk cars, fiberglass boat molds,....
