Fishing group pins
hopes on reef balls
By PAMELA WOOD, Staff Writer
Bobbing in a powerboat in the
middle of the Chesapeake Bay,
Kevin McMenamin watched as
the crew on the nearby
Patricia Campbell started its
work for the day.
The men lowered the vessel's huge crane and fastened it to one of
the concrete balls stacked on the deck on the custom-designed 60-
foot oyster restoration boat.
"They look pretty in the parking lot, but I'm definitely looking
forward to having them in the water," Mr. McMenamin said of the
oddly shaped structures covered with holes like wiffle balls.
Soon enough, one of the Patricia Campbell crew members called
out over the speakers, "Go ahead and set it down."
A few moments later, the first of 70 "reef balls" was gently lowered
to the bottom of the bay, where hopefully they'll attract marine life,
including fish and oysters.
The balls got their start about a month ago at Discovery Village, an
educational center in Shady Side, where volunteers from the
Maryland Saltwater Sportfishermen's Association poured the
concrete into molds to create 140 structures.
After curing, half of the reef balls were loaded onto the Patricia
Campbell by a team from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the
Maryland Environmental Service, an independent state agency.
In ones and twos, the balls were placed a few feet apart yesterday on
a spot called Dolly's Lump off of Hackett's Point, directly south of
the Bay Bridge.
Later this summer, the rest of the association's reef balls will be
added to the site. Then the area will be monitored twice in the next
year to see if the balls are working as planned.
