U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Reef Ball Oyster Project

Reef Ball was gracious enough to provide us with 5 or 6 mini-balls and 2 of the new oyster shell aggregate finished oyster balls so that we could conduct spat set tests here in coastal Louisiana. Those tests were to assess various material types for our soon-to-come (I hope) marsh/shore protection project. The tests have been completed and reefballs appear to be the winner (having the most oyster spat per unit surface area). Once we have the surface area computations completed, we should be able to send you a report. Dr. Earl Melancon, a professor at Nicholls State University (Louisiana), has conducted these tests and is having students develop the results. He is excited about the reefballs. After 2 months in the water, we had a BIG stone crab residing inside one of the oyster balls!