Southwest Florida Fishing News JULY 2000 REEF BALL UPDATE
REEF BALL UPDATE
By Todd Barber, President & CEO, Reef Ball Foundation, Inc.
The Charles H. Kirbo Memorial Reef, sponsored by the Kirbo Charitable Trust, was deployed on June
4th and 5th in St. Augustine and Jacksonville. Over 500 Reef Balls were deployed with another 200+
units left with the High School Program in St. Augustine for continued deployments in the 2000-2001
school year as part of the on-going aspects of this project. Numerous articles and TV segments were
associated with the deployments and will be available on the web site soon. World record free diver
Tanya Streeter was on hand to give the high school students associated with the project a motivational
speech entitled, "Redefining Your Limits".
The Reef Ball Family of companies wishes to publicly thank the Kirbo Charitable Trust and Kathy
Kirbo personally for all the hard work and funding associated with achieving this truly monumental
deployment of Reef Balls.
The Charles H. Kirbo Memorial Reef is now the largest designed artificial reef memorial in the
world!
This reef was built to honor the late Charles H. Kirbo, Sr. who was an attorney from Atlanta, Ga. who
served as an adviser and lawyer to President Jimmy Carter, was a trustee of the Carter Center and a
trustee of the T. M. and Irene B. Kirbo Charitable Trust. A plaque placed on the reef will honor his life's
accomplishments as a lawyer, statesman, W.W. II Veteran, farmer, fisherman and conservationist.
It is estimated that this reef will create 120 million pounds of ocean life over the expected life span of
the reef ( 500 years) of which over half will be fish. It will also provide educational and research
opportunities for the greater Jacksonville area. Local high schools, colleges and community
organizations, such as Jacksonville University, Jacksonville Reef Research Team, St. Augustine and
Mandarin High Schools will utilize the Kirbo Memorial Reef as a site to conduct scientific studies.
The Reef Ball Foundation has been assisting the educational efforts of students around the state. As a
result of their support, as well as the contributions of numerous local businesses, the Reef Ball Project at......
