Katherine Kirbo & Todd Barber
890 Hill Street
Athens, GA 30606
(770) 752-0202
kathy@reefball.com
reefball@reefball.com
www.reefball.org
Project Countries: Antigua, American Samoa, Australia, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belize, Brazil, Costa Rica, Columbia, Canada, Cayman Islands, Curacao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, England, Germany, Guam, Guatemala, Haiti, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Kuwait, La Reunion Island, Malaysia, Maldives Islands, Mexico, Mustique, Netherlands, Nevis & St. Kitts, New Zealand, Oman, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Saint Lucia, Sint Maarten, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turks and Caicos, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, USA
Project Overview:
The Reef Ball Foundation’s mission is to help restore our world’s ocean
ecosystems and to emphasize and protect our natural reef systems through
preservation, Reef Ball technology, innovative public education projects and
community involvement. Because coral reefs play a vital role in our world and
they have been severely threatened, The Reef Ball Foundation was formed to help
preserve and restore coral reefs and our ocean ecosystems and provide unique
educational projects and programs to raise the awareness of their importance.
Problem Addressed:
11% of the world’s coral reefs have been lost and another 16% were damaged
during 1998 with El Nino. Scientists estimate that another 32% of coral reefs
will be lost in the next 30 years if we continue our present rate of
destruction. Dynamite fishing, run-off, pollution, global warming, and over
fishing are just a few of the pressures humans are putting on the health of our
reefs. Without reefs, marine life will be threatened and we will have severe
losses in biodiversity of species and in turn, our fishing systems will be
bankrupt.
Technology Solution:
The Reef Ball was designed to help restore reefs. A Reef Ball is a designed
artificial reef made of special concrete aggregates that mimics the appearance
and function of the natural coral reef. Reef Balls are hollow with openings and
channels, which create an ideal living environment for a variety of marine
species. The concrete, with a pH similar to seawater, assures compatibility
with marine environments and enhance its attractiveness to colonizing
invertebrates and plants. Aside from coral and marine habitat restoration, Reef
Balls are also used to protect beaches and help with oyster recovery in bays
and estuaries.