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(Letter from Texas Parks & Wildlife to Reef Ball)

Upper Coast Field Office
17629 El Camino Real, Suite 175 
Houston, Texas 77058 
(281) 461- 4064 ext. 30

October 5, 1999 

Todd Barber 
PO Box 3349 
Sarasota, Florida 34230-3349 

RE: Texas Parks & Wildlife Reef Ball Project 

Dear Mr. Barber, 


Texas Parks & Wildlife's (TPW) Artificial Reef Program has enclosed a video tape of the reef balls we deployed at two reef sites, in partial fulfillment of our agreement with Reef Ball Development Corporation for a grant to lease the molds in 1997. The first part of the tape shows the reef balls under construction, and the first deployment operation offshore of Galveston. The second part of the video shows the reef balls after the first year at our second deployment site offshore of Port Isabel/South Padre Island. Enclosed are also maps of the two reef site locations, and a central coordinate, showing where each set of reef balls were deployed.

The following is a summary of Program's involvement with the Reef Ball project. In the summer of 1997, TPW received nine molds from Reef Ball Development Corporation. With the aid of the Seaborne Corps cadets at Texas A&M University, 132 reef balls were constructed over a four week period in June 1997.

One hundred reef balls were deployed in the fall of 1997 at Galveston189/Barr's reef site. Underwater video footage has not been obtained at this site due to limited visibility offshore of Galveston. A recent sidescan of the reef in August of 1999 did not reveal the position of these 100 reef balls in the reef site. TPW will continue to look for these reef balls; and attempt to video tape them when visibility permits us to see underwater.

The remaining 32 reef balls were deployed in August 1998, at TPW's Port Isabel/South Padre Island reef site. The video shows the first year's growth on the reef balls deployed at this reef site. Several juvenile reef fish including grouper can be seen living in the reef balls.

TPW will continue to monitor these reef balls and provide video footage whenever visibility permits. If you have any questions regarding the information I have provided, please contact me at (281) 461-4064 ext. 30.

Sincerely,

Jan C. Culbertson
Artificial Reef Coordinator 

cc: Paul Hammerschmidt, TPW 

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