Reef Balls Spur Marine Life Reef Balls Spur Marine Life
Early in the 1990s, alarmed by the rapid deterioration of the worlds coastal
ecosystems, diver Todd Barber thought long and hard about how to improve the
quality of artificial reefs that encourage new marine life. For decades people had
been throwing old machines, tires and concrete blocks into the water for this
purpose. But trash, unattractive to begin with, can also disintegrate and lose its
marine communities. I began to think about taking a great big beachball, making it
look gnarly like a brain coral, and wrapping concrete around it, says Barber.
From this early vision there has emerged the thriving, diversified, and
much-heralded all-volunteer Reef Ball Development Group. Based in Sarasota,
Florida, Barbers group has made the so-called reef ball into a strong and versatile
instrument for protecting marine environments. Concrete is poured into a fiberglass
mold. Holes of varying sizes are worked into the structure, giving it the appearance
of a rounded Swiss cheese. Reef balls vary in size from six inches to six feet in
diameter. Cast around a rubbery bladder, they can be towed by boat to a drop site;
the bladder can then be deflated and removed. Helicopters have bombarded
coastal waters with reef balls. The Atlantis submarine has deployed them as well.
By tweaking them a little bit with varying textures and chemical properties,
Barber and his group work to make each ball resemble the natural environment
into which it will be inserted. Youre never going to be as good as Mother Nature,
says Barber. But if you mimic what youre trying to fix, youll be a lot better than
nothing. Reef balls have functioned effectively as far north as Newfoundland as
well as in tropical and subtropical regions.
Since the groups first officially-sponsored ball hit the waters off West Palm
Beach in 1993, more than 30,000 of its balls have been released at over 250 sites
worldwide. The beat goes on at the rate of a thousand balls a month. Now the
worlds largest producer of artificial reefs that are aesthetically pleasing, ecologically
sound, and economically designed, as its literature terms them, the group is
split into profit and nonprofit divisions. Market rate sales to customers such as
Disney Corporation subsidize distribution to less affluent users. Says Jay
Jorgensen, the groups grants coordinator: Our goal is balls in the water.
Tests now under way in the Dominican Republic and St. Lucia are suggesting
that the reef ball can stabilize beaches, without pumping in offshore sand for
renourishment, as well as protect marine biodiversity. Once enough evidence of
success has been gathered, the Reef Ball Development Group plans to bring this
technology back home. URL: http://www.reefball.org.
