Reef Ball Foundation Photos and Project Description Database

The Marine Technology program has been in existence for over 30 years in the Seaport Town of Bayou La Batre. The fishing industry has trained students to enter the commercial fishing industry for boat building, net building (shrimping), commercial oystering and all other related fields. There are only two U.S. Coast Guard approved programs like this in the United States; the other being in Alaska which was modeled after ours. Students follow a rigorous marine curriculum starting in the ninth grade and are completers at the end of their 12th grade year. Our Marine Technology Program is asking for $25,000.00 to start a Reef Ball Building Program called ?Canes Reef Ball Project Replenish and Research?. The money will be used to purchase equipment and moulds to manufacture future reef balls in various sizes. The reefs will be used to improve the water quality for oyster production, to attract pelagic fish for reefs that were destroyed during Hurricane Katrina, and to improve the coral reefs that are now presently off shore. The school is located in the Bayou La Batre area in a new School-to-Work Program building which has a fifteen ton overhead crane. The school will receive concrete donations from local adopters in the business community. The possibilities are endless for the Bayou La Batre area where 75% of the homes and businesses were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Located adjacent to the Marine Technology Program is our Aquaculture Program which is funded by Chevron Offshore Oil. This innovation program is growing red snapper, cobia, and trigger fish in order to replenish the reef community. Thank you for your consideration to support our project. Start up dates are depending of private funds received and grant awards. The school can start production by Jan. 1, 2006 or later. Please be reminded that the school has available 501C for non-profit status. See http://www.reefball.org/sponsor.htm for more information about supporting our program

There is a "large area permit" in Alabama that allows indivudual fishermen to purchase their own Reef Balls and to allow them to keep the coordinates of these reefs private. Virtually all reef building in Alabama occurs this way. Coastal Reef Builders, Inc. is our authorized contractor for the area (see http://www.reefball.org/crb/ for contact information). They have bulit thousands of Reef Balls for fishermen and conservationists in Alabama. Sorry, GPS numbers are private and we don't publish pictures of the deployments.

Using (Federal) Wallap-Breaux Funds, Dr. Shipp at Dauphin Island studied the durability and fish productivity of various artificial reef modules including Reef Balls. Reef Balls are deployed in 60 feet of water. Monitoring: Oct 1998 "Reef Balls were reported by Dr. Shipp has having survived without movement the direct hit of Hurricane Georges at Dauphin Island."