Artificial reef balls revive a barren seafloor in Newfoundland

About a year ago, a team of ocean scientists from the Marine Institute’s coastal lab in Holyrood launched 285 cement reef balls into Fox Harbour, Placentia Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador.

The reef balls are made from a special type of cement that encourages biofouling – the natural buildup of algae and microorganisms – creating a textured surface for marine life to attach to.

The restoration effort was a joint venture: the Marine Institute worked with a major oil company and the provincial government to rehabilitate the seafloor adjacent to a dredging site.

Before the deployment, Mark Santos, a fisheries technologist with the Marine Institute’s Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Resources, described the area as ‘barren,’ likening it to a desert.

Underwater cameras later recorded algae carpeting the balls and lobsters slipping into the crevices, which Santos said he could see ‘lobsters sticking out of these little slots.’

The reef balls are expected to last up to 500 years. Although the project’s formal timeline is nine years, Santos plans to keep the camera in place as long as possible to monitor long‑term changes.

Project engineer Bethany Randell of the Marine Institute’s Centre for Applied Ocean Technology added that the growing habitat proves ‘we are doing something good’ and hopes similar structures will be placed elsewhere.

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