Parrot Head Reef Deployment Postponed Until 2026

-Atlanta Parrot Head Club member, Josh Jones, wins national design contest for graphic to be used in all ongoing outreach for the Parrot Head Reef-

-The Parrot Head Reef is organized by Eternal Reefs, Reef Innovations, the Reef Ball Foundation and Parrot Heads in Paradise and will be deployed off Key West in 2026 to honor Jimmy Buffett-

SARASOTA, Fla., June 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Due to operational and logistical challenges, the Parrot Head Reef deployment has been postponed until 2026. The project, originally announced in March 2025, was to have been launched on the two-year anniversary of Jimmy Buffett's passing, September 1, 2025. Due to site changes and logistical challenges for individual Parrot Heads in Paradise (PHiP) clubs nationwide, organizers have pushed back and targeted September 1, 2026 for the inauguration of the project.

"We want to do this project right and give the highest honor to Jimmy as well as all those who loved him and his music"

In associated news, Josh Jones, a member of the original Parrot Heads in Paradise club in Atlanta, won the nationwide search to develop a project design that appropriately combined the fun vibe of Parrot Head music with the environmental benefit of this underwater reef project. He is the son of two other inaugural Atlanta club members, Bill and Tracy Jones, and grew up in the club, his parents often bringing him to concerts in his car seat. This early exposure instilled in Josh a love of music and art; he plays the guitar and is a freelance illustrator and designer.

"I am so honored that the reef organizers picked my design…it was a blast to create something bright and bold and fun and funky all at once, including that saltshaker in the sand," said Josh Jones, designer and Atlanta Parrot Heads in Paradise member. "I hope the vibe I created just makes everyone feel good and want to participate in this worthwhile project that can only help the ocean that Jimmy loved so well."

The Parrot Head Reef project is a collaboration between Parrot Heads in Paradise (PHiP), a network of more than 200 social and charitable clubs around the U.S., Canada, Europe, the Caribbean and Australia, and Eternal Reefs, the Sarasota-based creative environmental memorial non-profit dedicated to placing living legacies that help preserve the marine environment for future generations. Reef Innovations and the Reef Ball Foundation, sister organizations of Eternal Reefs, are also involved.

The Parrot Head Reef will honor music's beloved Jimmy Buffett, a passionate ocean conservation advocate. The reef will be located in federal waters outside the sanctuary boundary permitted by Florida'sMonroe County, 10 miles off Key West, Fla., one of Jimmy's famously favorite and storied cities.

"Pushing back the launch of the Parrot Head Reef gives all the clubs in our organization a better chance of participating," said Bill Brehm, national president of Parrot Heads in Paradise. "We're hearing that many of them want to join in but need some time to partner over the next couple of months. It also gives us more time to generate momentum for this marine conservation cause that was so near and dear to Jimmy's heart."

The Parrot Head Reef will be comprised of two sizes of reef balls, ranging in size from about 600 to 1,600 pounds, and each will feature an 8-inch circular bronze plaque, custom designed by each entity which purchases the memorial. The marine area will become a dedicated space for underwater memorials featuring individual reef balls containing plaques paying homage to the original beach lover and ocean advocate.

"We want to do this project right and give the highest honor to Jimmy as well as all those who loved him and his music," said George Frankel, CEO of Eternal Reefs. "Pushing the Parrot Head Reef back to 2026 gives us a longer runway to properly honor the original Parrot Head."

A reef ball is a hollow, vented structure created from environmentally friendly, pH-neutral concrete. Because they are vented, ocean currents pass through and fish love to play in them, circling in and out. The majority of weight is at the bottom of a reef ball, so it stays where it's placed on the ocean floor. Mother Nature loves this material and begins her art project nearly immediately, adding natural marine matter to make it her own in as little as a few weeks.

While anyone may purchase a memorial, pricing preference will be given to PHiP members and clubs. Costs are $2,500 or $3,000 for the two sizes of reefs, each with an 8-inch custom plaque. The memorials will be on display in a Key West park-type location for viewing by individuals and clubs prior to being deployed.

Although Eternal Reefs is an ocean memorialization non-profit that exists primarily to help families create memorials to their loved ones by mixing their cremated remains to form an Eternal Reef, there are no plans currently to incorporate any cremated remains into the reef balls being placed at the dedication of the Parrot Head Reef.

For more information, please email PHiP@eternalreefs.com, visit https://www.eternalreefs.com/parrot-head-reef/ or phone 888-423-7333.

About Parrot Heads in Paradise
Parrot Heads in Paradise, Inc. (PHiP) is a not-for-profit corporation, whose purpose is to assist in community and environmental concerns and provide a variety of social activities for people who are interested in the music of Jimmy Buffett and the tropical lifestyle he personifies. PHiP promotes the international network of Parrot Head Clubs as a humanitarian group sharing information and social activities for mutual benefit and engages in activities that are charitable, educational and that promote the general welfare of the community.

This madness started with one club in Atlanta (founder, Scott Nickerson) and has blossomed to a network of over 200 clubs around the U.S. plus international clubs based in Canada, Europe, the Caribbean and Australia.

About Eternal Reefs
The Genesis Reef Project dba Eternal Reefs, Inc. is a Sarasota-based non-profit organization that provides a creative, environmentally enhancing way to memorialize the cremated remains of a loved one. Eternal Reefs incorporates cremains into a proprietary concrete mixture used to cast artificial reef formations which are then dedicated as permanent memorials which bolster natural coastal reef formations. Eternal Reefs pioneered the concept of reef memorialization and, since 1998, the organization has placed more than 3,000 Memorial Reefs in 25 locations off the coasts of Florida (Atlantic and Gulf coasts) Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia, substantially increasing the ocean's diminishing reef systems. Memorial reefs can only go in properly permitted locations by the U.S. Government. Eternal Reefs has strategic partnerships with the Reef Ball Foundation and Reef Innovations. Learn more at www.EternalReefs.com or on the company's Facebook page.

The Reef Ball Foundation was formed in the late 1980s when friends dove the reefs off Key West on their University of Georgia breaks and saw the degradation of the natural coral reef systems. They developed the proprietary technology used today, widely considered to be the gold standard of engineered reefs worldwide. The organizations have worked in more than 80 countries and managed more than 5,000 reef projects representing nearly 2 million reefs worldwide. Eternal Reefs is the non-profit strategic partner with the Reef Ball Foundation and Reef Innovations and pioneered the concept of reef memorialization in 1998.

Media Contact:
Becky Peterson
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peterson.becky.j@gmail.com

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SOURCE Eternal Reefs