{"id":894503,"date":"2026-09-13T18:26:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T18:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/894503\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T18:26:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T18:26:16","slug":"reef-balls-are-turning-an-ocean-desert-into-a-thriving-ecosystem-in-n-l-s-placentia-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/894503\/","title":{"rendered":"Reef balls are turning an ocean desert into a thriving ecosystem in N.L.\u2019s Placentia Bay"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

For millennia, seeing the bottom of the ocean floor was reserved for deepsea divers. But that, much like the ocean itself, has changed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Through an array of cameras, the majesty of the deepsea floor has been brought to life on screens \u2014 but so has the polar opposite of a thriving seabed: barren, grey dead zones. It\u2019s a testament to the damage caused to marine ecosystems.<\/p>\n

But a team of ocean scientists in Newfoundland and Labrador are turning one ocean dead zone into a thriving marine ecosystem.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is really cool because we get to fix a part of the ocean,\u201d Mark Santos, a fisheries technologist with the Marine Institute’s Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Resources.<\/p>\n

WATCH | \u2018Nature will find a way,\u2019 says fisheries technologist:\"\"<\/p>\n

A manufactured reef made of concrete structures brings new life into Placentia Bay<\/p>\n

A team of Ocean scientists is turning an ocean dead zone into a thriving marine ecosystem. The Fox Harbour area of Placentia Bay was barren a year ago\u2026 but now, it’s home to fish, lobsters, and more. CBC\u2019s Leila Beaudoin reports.<\/p>\n

A year ago, Santos and a team at The Launch, Marine Institute\u2019s coastal state-of-art lab in Holyrood, launched 285 cement reef balls into the bay. The structures are full of nooks and crannies and made from a type of cement that allows for biofouling, a natural process that invites algae growth working with sunbeams to photosynthesis marine snow into life.<\/p>\n

The Marine Institute partnered with a major oil company and the government to restore a seafloor zone in Placentia Bay\u2019s Fox Harbour, which is adjacent to a dredging site.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was barren,\u201d said Santos, who compared the area to a desert. \u201cIt was a mega project in the area, they had to remove some of the sediment in the area and this is a remediation project, we had an opportunity to rebuild.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TwoThese reef balls are built using cement that the sun can penetrate, so that algae can grow on the surface and marine life can move into the nooks and crannies. (Leila Beaudoin\/CBC)<\/p>\n

The team placed an underwater camera in the area to monitor the balls and watched as the cement became carpeted in algae and slowly, more and more marine life settled into the structures to call them home.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the video you\u2019ll see lobsters sticking out of these little slots and their little claws sticking out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Through an underwater camera, the artificial marine habitat can be watched through SmartAtlantic.ca.<\/p>\n

\"AnA reef ball carpeted in algae in Placentia Bay. You can watch the live stream at SmartAtlantic.ca. (SmartAtlantic.ca)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe actually get to show that to everybody, to say look, we are doing something good. There’s a new habitat growing here,\u201d said Bethany Randell, a project engineer with the Marine Institute’s Centre for Applied Ocean Technology.<\/p>\n

Randell added this is what she got into the ocean science business for, a chance to fix some of the damaged ocean.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we just step away for a minute, nature will find a way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the reef balls were put into place in the bay, Santos said lobsters have migrated there because the layered balls provide an excellent home for the borrowing crustaceans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The reef balls have a predicted lifespan of 500 years, and while this project has a nine-year span, Santos said he plans to keep the camera down there as long as possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe it would be great to put them in other places too,\u201d added Randell, who has big conservation ideas and started off wanting to be a marine biologist.<\/p>\n

Happy to see her ocean saving dreams reflected in this project, like Santos she hopes to keep the balls rolling.<\/p>\n

Download our\u00a0free CBC News app<\/a>\u00a0to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Sign up for our\u00a0daily headlines newsletter here<\/a>. Click\u00a0here to visit our landing page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":894504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-894503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=894503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/894504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}