Living Shoreline Project  more successful than expected.

from AL.com August 2012   “The oyster shell and concrete reef balls had been placed about 90 feet offshore of the island, an attempt to help restore the shoreline to its position in the year 2000. At the time, the water between the reefs and the shore was nearly three feet deep. Today, it is about shin deep, thanks to a huge amount of sediment trapped behind the reefs. New marsh, primarily spartina grass, is beginning to grow in the sediment, evidence that the island is expanding.”

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Off Shore Reef Balls

There is a “large area permit” in Alabama that allows individual fishermen to purchase their own Reef Balls and to allow them to keep the coordinates of these reefs private. Virtually all reef building in Alabama occurs this way.