1) The Kirbo Memorial Reef Deployment is scheduled for June 3rd in St.
Augustine and June 5th in Jacksonville. There will be much fanfare
including a band, press conferences, a possible appearance by Tanya
Streeter, (Women's world record free diver), a free 400 person casino boat
taking folks out to watch the Jacksonville Deployment, a "floating" style
deployment in St. Augustine, and much much more. Guests will be staying
at hotels in St. Augustine where most of the events will be occurring. If
you are planning on attending, contact Kathy Kirbo (kkirbo@hotmail.com) if
you need a hotel space reserved.
This is an open event and anyone is invited to attend. If you are a
member of the press and want to cover this event, contact Kathy. A
thousand Reef Balls will be deployed in this project, many made by two
participating High Schools at a memorial reef to Charles Kirbo, President
Jimmy Carter's lawyer and philanthropist .
2) News from New Zealand Reef Ball Foundation, Inc.
- The local Maori "Kaitaiki" [ Guardion of the sea] with the support of
his elders, are working to get 100's of reefballs down as part of the
shellfish ( paua -'abalone') restoration phase of the new Napier project.
--
-Documents have been prepared for Reef Ball New Zealand School Programs
and Shellfish Programs and will be available on the website soon.
-News from Whangarei: I have a group of students in the Diploma of
Environmental Management course
at Northland Polytechnic where I teach who have a reefball project on the
drawing board. the name of the Marien ecology tutor in the program is
Adrienne Livingston.
3) Two Reef Ball proposals are being prepared for South Africa projects.
4) Tanya Streeter has agreed to join the Reef Ball Foundation Board of
Directors. She recently lead a Reef Ball Coalition trip to Dominica and
the experience has moved her to help the foundation in its mission to
restore and protect our worlds ocean ecosystems. More from Tanya directly
about this appointment in a future update.
5) Alex Waters, a teacher from Jacksonville, won the Outstanding Science
Educator of the Year award last weekend due to his participation in the
Kirbo Memorial Reef Ball Project by the Marine Educators Association.
6) Reef Ball sites were awarded "Site du Jour of the Day (000509) May 9,
2000"
Reef Ball Foundation
http://www.reefball.org/
Reef Ball Development Group Ltd.'s Designed Artificial Reefs
http://www.reefball.com/
Reef Ball Foundation, Inc.
Bradenton, Florida, USA
"These two sites are maintained by Reef Ball Foundation, Inc. and
look at different aspects of the same product. A Reef Ball is a concrete
dome riddled with holes of different shapes and sizes, and are used to
create artificial reefs. The manufacturing process starts by filling a
Fiberglass mold with poured concrete, an inflated bladder inside the mold
serves two purposes; it allows the Reef Ball to have a hollow inside, and
facilitates floating the Reef Ball to its desired location at sea. The
bladder and other smaller toy balloon-sized devices are used to open up
the Reef Ball allowing underwater creatures hiding and feeding place once
the Reef Ball has been positioned on the sea floor. The increased surface
area gained by making the Reef Balls an irregular shape has also
encouraged coral growth in new and repaired reefs. Common pointers at both
sites look at diving and other environmental sites, and there are two
options available for people interested in making Reef Balls. The first is
a vacation package, a nice trip to the Tropics and a chance to help build
a reef system. The second is an idea I'm glad to see. Eternal Reefs allows
people to become a part of a Reef Ball after death. Cremated remains are
included in the concrete mix and a memorial plaque is fastened to the Reef
Ball before submersion. Morbid perhaps, but a nice alternative to the
traditional urn on the mantle. Smaller versions of the Reef Ball are also
available for saltwater aquariums through the site. A clever idea no
matter how you look at it, these Reef Ball sites should prove interesting
to anyone with an interest in diving, conservation, or things you have
never seen before."
Visit the Site du Jour of the Day Archives at
(http://members.tripod.com/~SdJotD/ )
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