REEF RESEARCH

Florida's intertidal zones have lost the majority of their historic oyster reef habitat. Restoration efforts exist and are successful in spawning new growth, with current designs largely prioritizing affordable, easy builds and deployment. We see opportunities to experiment with and optimize reef design and performance across contexts, noted below.

This research examines current solutions, their successes and room for growth, considering the holistic impact of an artificial reef's design. This research examines possible solutions, experimenting and testing new forms that eliminate harmful materials, are attractive for public buy-in, optimize for long-term oyster recruitment, and are easy and affordable to produce at scale.

In this ongoing research, we will focus on developing new hanging artificial reef structures, responding to the successes and constraints of current designs.

Vertical Oyster Gardens (VOGs) and Living Seawall tiles are popular and effective community-based restoration tools. The former is created by stringing recycled oyster shells vertically from docks to encourage spat recruitment, engage citizen scientists, and keep costs low. The latter is created by pouring reef-safe concrete into a mold, and attaching the design to a seawall or dock via mount hardware.

As VOGs scale and mature, the field has identified areas for continued development. The vertical, pendulum-like structure can be vulnerable to swinging and breaking in heavy wind and current. With a recorded 577% increase in mass after one year (Oyster Boys Conservation), the significant and rapid growth can create load-bearing considerations for both the reef and its host dock over time. Living seawall tiles similarly show room for development. Their designs are often textured yet relatively flat, unlike the complex tangle of a natural reef or mangrove root systems, prompting questions about the possibilities of a more complex, interconnected design.

Our proposed solution leverages the successes of these designs as a foundation to explore what the next-iteration hanging reef structure might look like. In this project, we prioritized weight distribution, dampened wave energy, biomimetic design, and eliminating harmful materials.

The Oystercatcher is a deployable reef substrate unit built from concrete chainmail. It is a flexible mesh of interconnected cast rings that drapes and conforms to the structure around it. The form responds to the structural logic of mangrove root systems, which are dense, irregular, and full of the sheltered interstices that juvenile oysters and small estuarine species prefer.

The chainmail system offers specific material advantages, like flexibility for transport and deployment, surface texture for spat attachment, and mechanics that absorb wave energy and distribute the weight of reef growth over time. The units are designed to be cast with reef safe concrete, with molds that assist in easy assembly.

Prototype units will be deployed in Tampa Bay in summer 2026 to document recruitment rates and biodiversity. We welcome conversations with restoration practitioners, marine biologists or other interested researchers: request@kateander.com.

Creative Direction, Research + DevelopmentKate Andersen

Monitoring + Research CollaborationAbby Hendershot, MNM