Cemetary Reef Research Reef (4 Ultra Sizes Reef Balls)

In November 2005, the Coral Team placed 4 Ultra Balls built and deployed by West Indian Marine in order to evaluate Reef Ball suitablity for near shore coral reef rehabilition applications in the Cayman Islands. Nov. 2006 monitoring shows that the Reef Balls are successful and corals are growing at the same rate as the natural corals. Comparisions between the reef crest freshly exposed to the Reef Balls show similar fouling rates, with the Reef Balls slightly ahead due to planted corals. The monitoring also indicates that near shore recovery is going to be a slow process taking from between 4-15 years before recovery is complete assuming no additional damages or impacts to the near shore environement.