High schoolers weren’t the only ones making reef balls recently. Chesapeake Public Charter School’s 6th-grade classes joined St. Mary’s River Watershed Association at the end of May to learn about reef balls and the benefits of making them. By raising the oysters up out of the riverbed and onto a reef ball, there is a better chance of survival due to better access to flowing water, higher oxygen levels, and lower risk from suffocating in the silt at the river bottom. The 6th graders made two concrete reef balls for the St. Mary’s River Watershed Association sanctuary and we inscribed the school acronym on them to commemorate the event!