ATLANTA—January 30, 2008—Plot space is running out across America. Families are moving, couples are divorcing, and no one visits their local cemetery to check on their final resting place. What are the burial options for the next generation? Cremation is growing dramatically in the United States, and by 2010, the procedure may be included in 40 percent of funerals, according to the Cremation Association of North America. Given these cremation statistics, alternative burial trends are on the rise, including eco-friendly or “green burial,” urging many Americans to think about leaving a permanent eco-living legacy. For families and individuals that choose alternative burial, a new memorial option is gaining popularity—reef burial.
Over the past seven years, Atlanta-based Company Eternal Reefs has offered underwater burial at sea in an artificial reef called a “Memorial Reef.” Eternal Reefs is the only company in the United States to combine an individual’s cremated remains with eco-friendly cast concrete to form a designed reef called a reef ball. Weighing anywhere from 400—4,000 pounds, each Memorial Reef placed on the ocean floor creates a new marine habitat for fish and other forms of sea life, allowing a new ecosystem to develop. Memorial Reefs have also been a solution for the “shelf people” crisis across the country. An astonishing 45 percent of families that have chosen cremation still have their loved ones remains sitting on a shelf or in a closet. Thousands of individuals pass away unexpectedly and don’t leave a will, leaving the next generation to handle their remains. Eternal Reefs offers a final resting place for those individuals.
With every Memorial Reef, the executor of the estate receives two memorial certificates that identify the longitude and latitude of the memorials, which are marked with bronze plaques. Loved ones can participate in every step of the Memorial Reef process and gather for the reef casting, viewing and placement ceremonies. Throughout the year, families and friends often return to the memorial reef site to dive, fish or even visit by glass bottom boat.
“You’re seeing a change culturally. Rather than passing down an urn to future generations or taking up space in a cemetery, this memorial is a true living legacy, says Don Brawley, founder, Eternal Reefs Inc. “Our families find comfort in knowing their loved one has a final resting place and a meaningful environmental tribute to life.”
