Reef Ball Foundation Photos and Project Description Database

Autumn 2000 Fishing__by a Nuttafisha REEFBALLS... instant reef, just add water and fish Ever wanted to have your very own Private reef? Ever get tired of driving over broad stretches of fishless sandy bottom wishing there was the odd clump of reef there to hold fish? Well Have We Got A Deal For You! One day while browsing through the internet, I came across an excellent site, www.reefball.com home of the Reefball reef enhancement system, developed in the USA to repair, replace and install reef as habitat enhancement, breakwater and mooring bases. Originally intended as a way of repairing hurricane damage to reefs, the reefballs are now being used around the world (100,000 units installed so far) from Abu Dhabi to Florida, Tasmania to Canada . ... and now they are soon to be here in good old NZ! Reefballs have been developed over the last decade to be one of the cheapest, most efficient, environmentally friendly and stable of all artificial reef constructions. The concrete used to make them is specially treated to be pH neutral, as is natural coral, and free of toxic elements, such as iron. The original idea was to have something that a bunch of keen divers could make easily ashore, then float out into place. The need for barges, cranes and so on was beyond the means of these folks, so they hit on the idea of coating a large beach-ball with concrete. The ball inside providing floatation until you had the concrete where you wanted it, then deflate the beach ball, and your new reefette was in place! Front this excellent idea, reefballs evolved. Now the reefballs still have the large internal bladder for floatation, but all around the sides of the mould used to make them are placed a number of smaller balls. These create an interconnected series of large holes in the outside of the reefball, allowing for free circulation of water around, into and through the reefball. These holes mean that in even the lightest of currents, the water eddies and swirls through the reefballs once in place on the bottom, preventing silt build up, while providing for the most natural and favourable growing conditions for sponges, corals right up through the food chain to large fish. All this was featured in the January 2000 Boating NZ, and immediately grabbed the attention of come highly motivated folks. Led by Dave Allison and Dave Head of Napier, a group of keen fishermen, divers and environmentalists have banded together to form the New Zealand Reefball Development....