Reef Ball Foundation Photos and Project Description Database

Jake Taylor, in the red shirt, of the Virginia Marine Resource Commission and volunteer Carter Hanson count the concrete balls that were placed in shallow water off the Eastern Shore on Wednesday. ANDREW HENDERSON | THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

Oyster restoration goes orbital: concrete orbs offer a biosphere Associated Press - June 30, 2007 2:15 PM ET OYSTER, Va. (AP) - Some Chesapeake Bay oysters will have concrete condos. Students from the Tandem Friends School in Charlottesville showed on the Eastern Shore last week, bearing 200 concrete balls. The orbs were set in salty, shallow water in Magothy Bay near Skidmore Island and in shallows at Smith Island. The experiment brought the school together with a diverse group: The Nature Conservancy, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Allied Concrete Company. Allied's president, Gus Lorder, approached the conservancy a year ago after reading that concrete might be a suitable habitat for struggling oysters. His Charlottesville company donated materials and concrete, which students shaped into reef balls. The experiment is the latest twist in using alternative materials to attract and grow native oysters that have been killed off by disease, lost habitat and overfishing. If the concrete orbs are successful, Allied wants to expand the experiment next year.....

Reef ball placement helps oysters BY MARY ANNA RODABAUGH FROM FRONT ADVERTISEMENT OYSTER -- A team of 16 workers on Wednesday deployed 200 concrete oyster reef balls into waters off the Eastern Shore's southern seaside areas in an effort to help restore Virginia's native oyster population. Jake Perkinson, a 2007 graduate of Tandem Friends School in Charlottesville, with the help of Gus Lorber, president of Allied Concrete in Charlottesville, decided to build concrete reef balls for a senior project. "This project started when Gus called me about a year or so ago about getting involved in oyster restoration. He recruited Jake and got him working through the school," said Barry Truitt, the chief conservation scientist of The Nature Conservancy's Virginia Coast Reserve. With the assistance of Todd Barber, founder and chairman of The Reef Ball Foundation, Perkinson spent months molding and building the reef balls in time for summer deployment. Truitt led the deployment team to two sites, one in Magotha Bay and one off the coast of Smith Island. In all, 109 reef balls were deployed in Magotha Bay and around 91 off the coast of Smith Island. An additional 90 reef balls will be deployed at another site near Smith Island next month. The concrete is environmentally friendly and mocks an oyster habitat. Oyster shells were scattered along with the reef balls at the Smith Island site. This.....