September 10, 2026, Seward Folly Staff

One hundred and forty-four artificial “Reef Balls” are being installed in front of the Alaska SeaLife Center this week, in waters ranging from 30 to 90 feet deep. The project is part of a mitigation effort to offset the environmental impact of the Alaska Railroad’s new freight dock expansion in Seward, which will extend the structure 1,000 feet into the bay. The idea goes back to June 2024, when Alaska SeaLife Center employees Chip Arnold and Nancy Anderson sat down with Elizabeth Greer, who manages the Alaska Railroad Corporation’s Docks & Slips Program, and Jeanette Holt of the ARRC Environmental Group.

The Army Corps of Engineers requires mitigation measures for projects like this — essentially, steps to restore or improve the environment to compensate for new development.

“Because of the disturbance that they’re going to extend that dock … the Army Corps requires that they do something that mitigates or improves the environment,” explained Chip Arnold, one of the project’s early advocates.

Arnold proposed creating an artificial reef using Reef Balls, inspired by a similar and successful project in Whittier back in 2006. It placed 100 “fish havens” and 100 reef balls on a sloping underwater site. Within the first two years of a five-year study, it was already growing into a real nearshore habitat. A follow-up dive study in 2016, by Oregon State University and Alaska Pacific University, found the reef still thriving and developing right alongside the natural reefs nearby.

“It would be really neat to put something out there that would basically reconstruct that area a little bit. We could monitor it and see what kind of recruitment we got for it, because they did get quite a bit of recruitment for the Whittier reef balls,” he said, referring to the way new marine life colonizes artificial habitat.

Greer says about 40 different mitigation ideas were considered, but the artificial reef stood out.

“It was determined to be one of the most feasible, and the Corps was supportive of it. This is a mitigation project for the freight dock project,” Greer said. “Because we’re getting rid of habitat, we have to make new habitat.”

The site for the Reef Balls was chosen because of its relatively stable underwater topography, as confirmed by recent bathymetry studies. The balls, each about six feet tall and fabricated by Alaska Sand and Gravel in Anchorage using molds from Reef Innovations, will be placed in 21 clusters of seven. Divers are ensuring each ball is properly seated on the sandy bottom, which was once the site of previous infrastructure, much of it lost or damaged in the 1964 earthquake and subsequent tsunami.

Arnold expects the new structures to attract a wide variety of marine life.

“We know that because our aquarium team has collected them before — Pacific octopus sometimes go in the little pilings and things, and we might be able to improve that area there,” he said. “It’ll improve the recruitment of fish, and maybe even the pathways of salmon as they come in on their runs.”

The Reef Balls are designed with a textured surface and hollow interior, creating sheltered spaces for fish and invertebrates.

“Hopefully it’ll be fish recruitment,” Arnold said. “I’m hoping that the Pacific octopus find good habitat there. Various things can protect themselves inside there, yeah. It’s almost a mystery as to exactly what will recruit.”

Monitoring will be a key part of the project.

“We agreed to monitor it for three years after it was put in,” Arnold noted.

There are also plans to involve local divers and citizen scientists, including students from various scientific diving programs, to help track how the reef develops.

“It would be fun to go and see what recruits out there,” Arnold said.

The Reef Balls were intentionally built larger than typical to withstand Seward’s harsh winter storms.

“They needed to be big enough to, as you said, make sure they stay there,” Greer explained.

The installation is being handled by Sea Level Assets out of Homer, working with Resolve Diving.

“These need to be dropped within two feet of their target for GPS,” said a representative from Sea Level Assets, noting the challenge of placing the heavy structures accurately in strong currents and wind. Their vessel, the Arctic Seal, has been working in front of the SeaLife Center all week. 

The hope is that these new artificial reefs will provide lasting habitat for marine life, help offset the loss of natural habitat from the dock expansion, and even improve local fishing opportunities.

As Arnold put it, “Think what we do as Alaskans is fish, and so we’re trying to improve that environment.”

The project is funded by the Alaska Railroad.