Reef Ball Drop a Success!

The crew from Eagle Beach Construction prepare to drop the reef ball as tv crews film for the 6 O'clock news! 

Hello everyone:

On a sunny Friday, May 12, 2017, after months of research, emails and phone calls, the IPYNC finally dropped an artificial reef, called a reef ball, into St. Margaret's Bay.

The IPYNC was fortunate to have worked with Shelley Armsworthy, a Fishers and Oceans Canada Lobster Scientist, who found a reef ball in the Bedford Institute of Oceanography's parking for us. Without Shelley's enthusiastic help, we would not have got The Reef Ball Project  ball rolling.  A big thank you to Shelley who would every few weeks send us a photo of the snow surrounding the reef ball gradually melting away to finally be revealed the in April.

The reef ball slowly melting from the winter's snow at the BIO parking lot in March

We look forward in working with our partners the St. Margaret' s Bay Stewardship Association (https://www.heartofthebay.ca/) and the Bluenose Coastal Action Foundation (http://coastalaction.org/Wordpress/) on the project.

IPYNC's young naturalists will contribute to the pilot study that involves placing reef balls in St. Margaret's Bay and Mahone Bay  They will collecting data over the next three years to see if the reef balls habitats are beneficial to the Bays ecosystem. This will be done by campers will diving the 2M to the reef ball or by the use of underwater scope and camera to observe the creatures that are attracted to the reef balls.  After drying off, campers will record their observation.  This data will be submitted to DFO at the end of the summer.

CBC and GLOBAL television reporters were at the camp on Friday reporting on the project.  You can see GLOBAL's report and, by skipping ahead to 16:21 point, see the CBC report by clicking on the links below:

http://globalnews.ca/news/3448628/nature-club-releases-reef-ball-in-glen-haven-cove/

http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/942804035874

CBC's Colleen Jones twitter feed of the reef ball drop can be found at this link: https://twitter.com/cbccolleenjones?lang=en

We also want to thank Junior Counselor Emma for doing a great job being interviewed and the campers and families who came right from school to cheer on the reef ball but in the bay.

Peace, love and having a reef ball,

-I.P.Y.N.C Staff