What began as an unusual request from a dying man became a new way to remember people while creating habitat beneath the sea. According to The Washington Post, the story began in 1998, when Don Brawley incorporated his father-in-law Carleton “Petey” Palmer’s cremated remains into a concrete artificial reef. The memorial reef was cast in Sarasota, Florida, and later placed on the Gulf of Mexico floor. Palmer’s request eventually led to Eternal Reefs, which has deployed thousands of memorial reefs at permitted sites along the US coast. By 2023, Eternal Reefs reported that more than 2,500 memorial reefs had been placed at about 25 locations.
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