1) After 10 years in business, The Reef Ball Development Group, Ltd. is
being closed.  The Reef Ball Foundation Inc. will now take over nearly all
the functions of RBDG.
We did this for a variety of reasons.  Foremost was the fact that all of the
Reef Ball Development Group's activities fall under the mission statement of
the charitable Reef Ball Foundation; therefore we don't have the need for a
"for profit" company.  Additionally, it was confusing to people to
understand that Reef Ball Development Group, Ltd. was all volunteer without
paying any salaries yet it was technically organized as a for profit
business.

Don't worry however; most all of the same services will still be available
through 3 new divisions of the Reef Ball Foundation

Reef Ball Foundation Charitable Division (Giving grants and funding
projects, grant writing, charitable fundraising, and education)
www.reefball.org

 Reef Ball Foundation Volunteer Services Division (matching volunteers to
projects) and branching out our service offerings to Coral Restoration Work,
Coral Rescue Work, Coral Propagation Work, Live Coral Genetic Bank Creation,
and Red Mangrove Planting Work, www.reefball.com/reefballcoalition/

 Reef Ball Foundation Services Division (reef ball molds, technology
development, and most of the services you were used to from the Reef Ball
Development Group) www.reefball.com

The only service that will not be available through the Foundation will be
Reef Ball molds for use in erosion control applications (since erosion
control is not in the mission statement for of the Reef Ball Foundation).
Reef Balls can still be obtained for erosion control through The Reef
Breakwater Company (www.reefbreakwater.com this site may not be active for a
day or two) that is being formed to handle this exception or other uses of
reef balls that would not be appropriate for a Charitable Foundation.

All outstanding contracts, invoices, and licenses will be automatically
switched into the Reef Ball Foundation's name with the exception of Reef
Ball Authorized Contractor Agreements which must be re-issued within 90 days
with contractual changes to insure adherence to foundation rules.contact
reefball@reefball.com to update your agreements.

We are updating all of our websites to reflect this change, but our websites
are so vast that it may take some time to catch them all.  Continue to use
www.artificialreefs.org as the main web entry point to gain access to any of
our divisions and you should be able to find everything you need.

We are excited to finally shed our for profit side and to continue to work
to help restore our world's aquatic ecosystems using the lasted designed
artificial reefs, coral propagation techniques, and other new and exciting
techniques to restore our ecosystems.

2) A Reef Ball Foundation project will commence in Costa Rica the 3rd or 4th
week in April.  Reef Ball Foundation and the CRUSA Foundation are jointly
funding the project that will involve a school project deploying 90 Reef
Balls with coral transplants.

3)  Sarasota County and Manatee County. (Jan./Feb. News)

       The Sarasota Bay National Estuary Program is supplying Sarasota
County with 175 Bay Ball modules to be placed in four locations on the
Silvertooth Reef site, approx. 1mile out New Pass in Sarasota County. These
modules will be added to a site that has just received 52 million pounds of
material from the demolition of the old Ringling Causeway. This truly will
be a great fishing and diving reef located close enough to shore for all
boaters, even the little guys. It will even be a great haven for bait fish
and ideal for days when weather is to rough to go far offshore.

       SBNEP will also supply 150 Bay Balls, to be included with manatee's
purchase of 112 assorted Reef Ball (40 PB, 59 BB, 29 mini bay, 24 Lo-pro and
4 table top add on) to be placed at the center point of 4 sites located near
Anna Maria Sound. These sites are Emerson Pt., S.E. Tampa Bay, Bulkhead and
Bayshore north in N. Sara. Bay. The units will be placed at the center
points to aid the navigationally challenged boater in locating habitat to
fish. Harlee Middle school students under the guidance of Rick Smith, has
produced an additional 20 Bay Balls to be placed on the Bulkhead site. They
also produced a number of Lo-Pro, mini bays and oyster balls to be placed in
a future dock or sea wall project. Great job Harlee!!!

       This has been an update on the great work, Manatee County (John Noll
and crew) Sarasota County ( Mike Solom and crew) and the Sarasota National
Estuary Program (Gary Raulerson and crew) has been doing today as well as in
the past and we all hope into the distant future to enhance and protect the
Manasota area Marine habitat for its residences of today and tomorrow.

As I am on the road in Argentina, I don't  have the latest email update
list..I apologize  to anyone getting this that has removed their
subscription and also to those that have signed up lately and won't get this
message.

-Todd Barber
Chairman, Reef Ball Foundation