Sign up for a reef now and forward to your friends!
Sign up for a reef now and forward to your friends!
Partners for Environmental Progress and the University of South Alabama School of Marine Science partner with The Eagle Reef to reach 1,000 reefs.
Sign up to get your reef now and let friends and neighbors know to get on the list early.
Partners for Environmental Progress will begin raising funds from the business community to purchase an additional 825 reefs. Visit https://pepmobile.org/the-eagle-reef/ if you are a business that would like to make a tax-deductible donation.
The Stokes School of Marine and Environmental Sciences will help identify and coordinate reef locations, monitor reef progress, test the water quality surrounding the reefs and report the information to PEP members, DNCR and the public. New USA Stokes School of Marine & Environmental Sciences | School of Marine and Environmental Sciences (southalabama.edu)
PEP is beginning to raise funds to purchase and additional 825 reefs.
You can purchase one reef for the discounted rate of $350. Any additional reefs would be $150.
We install the reef for you. There is no scheduled maintenance required on the reef. They should be monitored in case the ropes get damaged from something in the water.
Unseeded Reefs installed last year
A heron hunts from one of the reefs we installed.
This reef does not yet have oysters (a few) but marine growth that also harbors shrimp and baitfish. The redfish try and scare the bait out of the safety of the reef.
The Eagle Reef is the Boy Scout eagle project for John Shell of Troop 147 in Mobile Alabama. The initial goal is to deploy 100 of the 2’x2’x3’ mini reefs across coastal Alabama. After six months, each reef is loaded with filter feeders (oysters, barnacles, etc.), and it will filter and clean 10,000,000 gallons of water per year and attracts fish to your wharf.
It will also provide habitat to grow 500 fish and crabs annually. Each reef comes preassembled and is tied between four pilings under a dock or wharf. It floats up and down with the tide.
You can donate to have a reef deployed on the coast and filter 10 million gallons of water and grow 500 fish and crabs annually. Protect our resources from the comfort of your couch!
The reefs will be deployed across coastal Alabama. Including Dog River, Fowl River, Dauphin Island, Orange Beach and Perdido Bay. The reefs thrive anywhere south of Fairhope and will grow and nurture sea life. They are especially effective for filtering water in areas with limited tidal flow such as the canals of Ono Island, Dauphin Island and Orange Beach, but they grow and attract fish everywhere. The stars on the map are examples and not the only places that the reefs can go. The reefs can go under any wharf or dock.
The reefs tie between four pilings and float up and down with the tide.
Each reef is like a nursery and supports 500 new fish and crabs annually.
Donate, get a reef for yourself and sign up as a reef captain and recruit other locations
Help contact homeowners to identify reef locations.
Don't have a place to put a reef but want to help. Donate and we'll take care of the rest!
Please reach us at theeaglereef@gmail.com if you cannot find an answer to your question.
You must fill out the form below and make a donation. The reefs are $350 for the first reef and $150 for each additional reef.
You can donate to put out a reef in someone's honor and contact friends with wharfs where we can install a reef.
You can go to Partners for Environmental Progress' website PEP Mobile – Partners for Environmental Progress and they will take care of you.
We will send email updates on the project and, in the future, send out reports on the reefs progress and water testing. You will need to fill out the form below to get on the list.
Enter your name, address where the reef will be installed, phone number, email address and we will reach out to you!
The first reef is $350 and additional reefs are $150. Donate below.
Thank you!
Don't forget that you have to donate below!
Your support and contributions will enable us to deploy reefs, filter water and create marine ecosystems and fish habitat. Don't forget to fill out the reef form above.
I have recently completed all the badges required by the Boy Scouts to become an Eagle Scout. The only thing left for me to complete is my eagle project. I have worked extremely hard over the last several years and am excited to be this close. I am asking you to help me achieve this goal.
I thought about many different things when evaluating what to do for my project. The main criteria that I set is that it needs to make a significant impact. Living in Mobile, I really love being on the water and fishing. We all can do a better job of taking care of our bay and rivers, and I wanted to do something that would help to both clean our water and improve the fish and crab population. Everyone wins if we achieve this goal. With all that in consideration, I decided to create a reef program for the Alabama coastal communities.
I researched and found a biologist in South Florida that developed a mini reef that floats and is tied under your wharf. It is simple to assemble and begins growing sea life immediately. Once the reef is loaded with oysters, barnacles, and other filter feeders (typically six months), it will filter an average of 30,000 gallons of water a day. This equates to 11 million gallons a year cleaned for just one reef. Additionally, each mini reef acts as a nursery and grows 200 fish and 300 crabs per year.
My goal is to raise $30,000 for this project. This will allow me to deploy 100 of these mini reefs across Mobile and Perdido Bays. Deploying 100 of these mini reefs will annually clean 1 billion gallons of water and grow 20,000 fish and 30,000 crabs. The goal is to not stop at 100. I plan to build a website where others can go to learn about the mini reefs and order one for their wharfs. Additionally, I plan to have “reef captains” located in various areas (Fowl River, Dog River, Point Clear, Dauphin Island, Ono Island, Orange Beach, etc.). Each of these captains will identify 10-20 wharfs and piers in their area to install the reefs. As fish begin congregating on the reefs at their wharfs, their neighbors will want one of their own.
This project has received the blessing of Chris Blankenship, Alabama’s Commissioner of Conservation, Colonel Scott Bannon, Director of Marine resources and Dr. Sean Powers, South Alabama’s Chair of Marine Resources and Chief of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. Dr. Powers plans to put several reefs at the DI Sea Lab to study and report on their results. This will help to expand the program too.
I am really excited about this project and the opportunity to make a positive impact on the bays that we love so much. Filtering and cleaning 1 billion gallons per year is hard to imagine. By the time I graduate college, these 100 reefs will have cleaned 6 billion gallons and grow 300,000 fish and crabs. Imagine when the word catches on, and we have 1,000 of these deployed.
The reefs cost $437 retails and we are offering them at $350 each.
I thank you in advance for your support.
John Shell
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