ExoForm Living Shoreline on Shamrock Island Featured by KIII News and NPR’s KEDT

We’re thrilled to share one of our most exciting milestones yet: one of our first projects in Texas is now live on Shamrock Island, and it’s already making waves—literally and in the media.

This project is a great representation of our approach: deploying technology-first, nature-based solutions to deliver fast, habitat-positive coastal resilience where it matters most. Shamrock Island, located just offshore from Mustang Island in Corpus Christi Bay, is one of the most important bird nesting islands on the Texas coast. But until now, it was losing as much as 14 feet of shoreline every year—a pace that threatened the future of this critical rookery.

That’s where Natrx stepped in.

Photos By Coast & Harbor Engineering, Inc.

Working with our incredible partners—The Nature Conservancy (who funded the project), Coast & Harbor Engineering, and Viking Dredging—we designed and deployed a high-performance living shoreline using 468 custom ExoForms™. These modular, 3D-printed concrete structures were made in Louisiana using our patented Dry Forming™ process, then transported and installed along the shoreline in a rapid, low-impact deployment.

Each ExoForm was tailored to meet the unique environmental and wave conditions of Shamrock Island. We used a custom closed-back Lattice design to promote sand retention, break wave energy, and foster rapid colonization by oysters and other marine life. The result is a low-profile breakwater that mimics a submerged sandbar—softening waves, trapping sediment, and helping restore the beach naturally.

“We’re not just putting something in place to slow erosion,” said Leonard Nelson, Natrx CEO. “We’re building something that gets stronger and more alive over time.”

And the broader community is taking notice.

Photos By Coast & Harbor Engineering, Inc.

This project was recently featured on KIII-TV (story here) in Corpus Christi and on NPR station KEDT FM (story here). The stories highlight how nature and innovation can work together to protect vital coastal habitats while creating living systems that the public can be proud of.

As Tyler Ortego, Natrx GM of Coastal Solutions, shared:

“When you work with nature, she’ll work with you. These aren’t just structures—they’re starting points for ecosystems.”

This project proves what we’ve always known: nature-based solutions are not only viable—they're scalable, efficient, and increasingly essential. From our origins in Louisiana to this new work in Texas, Natrx is showing how a smarter, faster, more ecological approach to shoreline protection can truly reshape what’s possible.

👏 Huge thanks to our partners:

• The Nature Conservancy

• Coast & Harbor Engineering

• Viking Dredging

KIII-TV (story here)

NPR station KEDT FM (story here)

Shamrock Island Case Study Here

We're honored to be featured in a new film series by LOUISIANA INNOVATION, a new division of Louisiana Economic Development (LED), which highlights innovative businesses making an impact in the state. Alongside this exciting recognition, Biz New Orleans has covered our work, showcasing Natrx as a leader in nature-based coastal resilience solutions.

Showcasing Coastal Innovation

At Louisiana Innovation Day, held in conjunction with Super Bowl LIX, LED spotlighted companies that exemplify Louisiana’s entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to sustainable progress. As part of this initiative, Natrx was selected for a feature film that showcases our journey—from early research at Louisiana State University to the development of our ExoForms™ technology and the establishment of our manufacturing facility in Amelia, Louisiana.

Our work has always been rooted in a mission to protect and restore coastal environments through cutting-edge, habitat-positive solutions. The LED film captures how our Dry Forming™ technology reshapes shoreline protection by creating adaptable, eco-positive infrastructure that grows stronger over time.

A Spotlight in Biz New Orleans

This recognition was further amplified by Biz New Orleans, which covered our participation in the LED initiative and highlighted how Natrx contributes to Louisiana’s thriving innovation landscape. The article details our role in providing sustainable solutions to combat erosion, protect communities, and restore marine habitats—not just in Louisiana, but across the U.S. and beyond.

Watch the Film Series

We're incredibly proud to be part of this initiative and to represent Louisiana’s commitment to coastal resilience and environmental stewardship. You can watch the LED film series featuring Natrx here: LA.IO

Read More

For an in-depth look at our story and our role in Louisiana's innovation ecosystem, check out the full Biz New Orleans article here: LED Showcases Natrx Among Top Louisiana Businesses.

This recognition reinforces our belief that nature-based solutions are the future of infrastructure resilience. We’re grateful to our partners, clients, and supporters who help make this possible.

Follow our journey and stay updated on the latest innovations in coastal resilience by connecting with us on LinkedIn and Instagram.

At Natrx, we believe that innovation and nature-based solutions can work hand in hand to restore and protect our coastlines. That’s why we’re honored to be a part of REEFrame, a groundbreaking coral reef restoration project off Waikīkī Beach, Hawai‘i.

Led by Conservation International Hawai‘i and supported by a $9M grant from NOAA, REEFrame is an ambitious initiative designed to restore degraded coral reefs, enhance marine biodiversity, and strengthen coastal resilience in one of the world’s most iconic locations. Through cutting-edge engineering, community collaboration, and respect for Indigenous stewardship, REEFrame represents a powerful step forward in ocean restoration.

Why Waikīkī?

Once a thriving marine ecosystem, the coral reefs of Waikīkī have suffered severe degradation due to urbanization, pollution, climate change, and rising ocean temperatures. Healthy reefs play a vital role in protecting coastlines, providing habitat for marine life, and supporting local communities. Without intervention, these fragile ecosystems face further decline.

REEFrame aims to reverse this trend by building two permanent coral nurseries on the seafloor, about three-quarters of a mile offshore. These structures, constructed from innovative 3D-printed reef modules, will create a foundation for coral growth while attracting essential marine species like parrotfish that help maintain a healthy reef ecosystem.

How Natrx is Contributing

Natrx specializes in adaptive infrastructure solutions that blend technology with nature to enhance coastal resilience. For REEFrame, we’re bringing our advanced DryForming™ technology, a sustainable 3D printing method that creates complex reef structures out of natural materials. These modules are designed to:

• Mimic natural reef formations, providing ideal habitats for coral and marine life
• Support "corals of opportunity," which are living coral fragments salvaged from disturbances and nurtured in the nurseries
• Encourage natural coral settlement, gradually transforming into thriving reef ecosystems
• Withstand extreme ocean conditions, ensuring long-term stability and resilience

By leveraging this technology, we’re proud to help accelerate coral restoration and showcase how science and engineering can work together to rebuild our natural world.

A Collaborative Effort

REEFrame is a testament to what’s possible when diverse expertise comes together with a shared vision. Alongside Natrx, this project brings together:

• Conservation International Hawai‘i – Leading project coordination and community engagement
• University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa – Providing scientific leadership in coral restoration
• Hawai‘i Division of Aquatic Resources – Ensuring regulatory compliance and conservation strategy
• Oceanit – Delivering marine engineering expertise
• ClimbHI – Engaging local communities and workforce development initiatives
• NOAA Office of Habitat Conservation – Supporting technical and environmental compliance

Restoration Rooted in Culture and Community

Beyond its ecological impact, REEFrame is deeply connected to the cultural heritage and traditions of Hawai‘i. The project embraces the Hawaiian value of kuleana (responsibility) and follows the guiding principle e hāpai wa‘a kākou—"if we all help to lift and carry the canoe, we can move it forward." By integrating Indigenous knowledge with modern science, REEFrame ensures that restoration efforts honor the past while securing the future of Hawai‘i’s ocean resources.

Looking Ahead

The REEFrame project is set to run through 2026, with construction expected to begin in 2025 following environmental studies and permitting. Once deployed, the reef nurseries will become a permanent, self-sustaining habitat—a living example of what’s possible when technology, conservation, and community come together.

At Natrx, we’re proud to bring our expertise to this transformative initiative. Seeing our work extend from the coasts of North Carolina and Louisiana all the way to Hawai‘i underscores the power of scalable, nature-based solutions.

Stay tuned as we continue to share updates on this incredible journey. Together, we’re helping to restore reefs, protect coastlines, and build a more resilient future for our oceans.

➡️ Learn more about REEFrame at reeframehi.org

Following the massive interest in the Hotel Sid artificial reef project we recently worked on, Louisiana Public Broadcasting's Karen LeBlanc wanted to know more about what makes this project so innovative.

Here, Karen goes behind the scenes with Natrx CEO Leonard Nelson and Danos Ventures CEO Eric Danos to get an up-close look at how ExoForms are created and what makes them a higher-performance, more cost-effective solution than the traditional methods for creating artificial reefs of the past.

KATC News was out with us on a recent installation of Natrx ExoForms™ to help build back a healthy and vibrant food chain at a popular fishing location.

Our ExoForms are at the center of this habitat restoration project. ExoForms provide a stable and rough surface for base marine organisms to attach to and make home, helping restore the lost food chain from the bottom up. Healthy natural systems are resilient systems that provide a whole list of ecological benefits including cleaner water, increased biodiversity, and increased storm resilience.

Get more info on our ExoForms here.

And read the KATC story here:
CCA and Partner Agencies Install 50th Artificial Reef

KATC News came out to take a look at our new Resilience Center of Excellence and get the details on what this means for our ability to deploy Adaptive Infrastructure solutions globally. For more detail on the facility, you can read this recent post:

Natrx Establishes a Resilience Center of Excellence with Global Reach in Southern Louisiana

And you can read the whole story at KATC.com:

Nature-based coastal resilience solutions facility opens in Amelia

Natrx Awarded $1 Million Grant by the National Science Foundation to Develop Technology for Measuring Carbon Value in Coastal Wetlands

Small Business Innovation Research Program Funds R&D
to Fuel “Blue Carbon Economy”

RALEIGH, N.C. (Nov. 14, 2023) – Leading climate tech company Natrx has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to continue development of its remote-sensing technology designed to quantify the economic value of carbon stock in coastal wetlands. The $1 million award to advance Natrx’s Resilience for Waterfront Infrastructure (REWIRE) platform is also eligible for additional matching funds from NSF that would push the grant total to $1.7 million.

Natrx’s technology and data-driven approach to carbon and biodiversity accounting in wetland ecosystems will lead to the emergence of sustainable new business models. The REWIRE platform will also facilitate private financing of nature-based restoration projects that protect communities and fuel local economies. Natrx’s innovative approach integrates remotely-sensed and field-based data, and applies artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to map coastal erosion rates, blue carbon, and biodiversity at high spatial resolution.

“The REWIRE platform will be a critical tool in appraising the carbon value that exists in coastal areas,” said Leonard Nelson, CEO of Natrx. “We are deeply appreciative of the continued recognition and investment from NSF that will help unlock value that can lead to sustainable, blue carbon economies where they’re needed most.”

In 2021, Natrx was also awarded NSF funding for Phase I of this project. Phase I focused on the development of AI and geospatial software tools for assessing hyper-local, hydrodynamic and erosive conditions at high resolution.

As part of Phase II, the Center for Geospatial Analytics at North Carolina State University will help power the geospatial processing capabilities of the REWIRE approach using the GRASS GIS open-source software. Dr. Vaclav Petras, Research Software Engineer at NC State, will oversee integration of GRASS GIS APIs into REWIRE.

“The collaboration with Natrx allows us to contribute to open-source software development by enhancing the existing tooling, and contribute to open science by making more algorithms readily available,” said Dr. Petras.

All initiatives considered by the NSF for SBIR grants undergo a rigorous merit-based review. The program supports scientific excellence and technological innovation that is moving from the lab to the market.

Most of the world's coastal habitats are vulnerable to erosion which can have wide-ranging negative impacts on local economies. Enhancing shoreline resilience and biodiversity can unlock the value of coastal ecosystems by supporting nature-based infrastructure, sustainable fisheries, tourism, and clean water. These “blue economy” opportunities offer environmental benefits as well as social benefits of economic equity and environmental justice for low-income and underserved communities.

The work we're doing on the Pamlico River with the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries was covered today by ABC News. They spent some time with our COO, Tad Schwendler, to understand the project, how our approach works, and what the project aims to achieve. The video they produced as well as the original article are available below.

We're thrilled that our advanced technology approach to delivering nature-based resilience and restoration is getting this kind of national attention. More attention will lead to more consideration of how to address these challenges. And more consideration, from us and from other innovative approaches, will be how we'll be able to make real impact.

(See the original story here at ABC News)

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Installation underway of 15 acres of 3D-printed artificial reefs in coastal North Carolina

Several acres of 3D-printed artificial reefs are currently being planted in coastal North Carolina to bolster the region's biodiversity and promote new growth of natural reef.

The reefs, 3-foot concrete cubes called "Exoforms" that contain a lot of void space to allow marine life to thrive, are being planted in the Palmico River, a large estuary system on North Carolina's Atlantic Coast, Tad Schwendler, COO of environmental solutions firm Natrx, told ABC News.

The roughness and irregularities of the structures leaves room for species at the bottom of the food chain, such as algae and other microorganisms, to grow, which then attract the larger species, Schwendler said.

The 15-acre installation is part of a two-year project by the Coastal Conservation Association of North Carolina and the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries,in Pamlico Sound and its tributaries. The deployment began on Oct. 20 and is expected to be complete by the end of the week.

The reef site will be one of 25 artificial reefs managed by the DMF. In May 2022, a similar artificial reef was deployed upstream, near the mouth of Bath Creek, Schwendler said.

The reefs will promote cleaner water and provide habitat for a variety of marine life, including fish, oysters, mussels, crustaceans and other invertebrates, Schwendler said. Important game fish, such as red drum, bass and speckled trout, are also expected to flock to the location once the reefs are settled and thriving.

Recreational fishing tends to cluster in certain locations in North Carolina, and promoting biodiversity in other parts of the state will allow that activity to spread out, Schwendler said.

"It's better for the ecosystem," he said.

The artificial reefs will also serve as skeletons for natural reefs to grow, Schwendler said. For the natural reefs to recur naturally, they need a substrate to grow upon, Schwendler said.

In recent years, coastal North Carolina has been experiencing environmental issues such as coastal erosion from sea level rise and more development along the coast.

"By creating these artificial reefs, it helps improve the resilience of our coastline, especially since a lot of the natural reefs in the U.S. have been lost over the years," Schwendler said.

The project is a prime example of using technology and natural systems to protect shorelines and make them more resilient, Schwendler said.

Natural systems are the most cost effective and environmentally friendly way to promote biodiversity, Schwendler said.

"These estuarine reef installations represent significant milestones in the use of adaptive infrastructure technology in North Carolina," Leonard Nelson, CEO of Natrx, said in a statement.

In addition to promoting biodiversity, artificial reefs have been found to capture carbon, according to a study published earlier this month by the Friends of the RGV Reef, a Texas-based conservation organization, and the University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley.

The two-year study found that sponges and soft corals that cover the RGV Reef, the largest and most complex artificial reef off the Texas coast, do contain high amounts of carbon dioxide "in some significant proportion," the researchers found. Both the reef’s structure, the bottom or sediment, as well as the biomass, fish and other marine life in the water column, is capturing or trapping carbon, the scientists said.

A project that we've been working on in the Pamlico River with the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries and the North Carolina Coastal Conservation Association was featured on WITN news this past week. We're proud this piece demonstrates how our custom-designed ExoForms™ can be an ideal part of building back biodiversity in coastal waterways, but we're also proud of how this piece demonstrates that it takes positive and productive partnerships to bring these projects to life.

View the original piece with video on WITN here.

Environmental groups have partnered with the state Division of Marine Fisheries to improve one waterway in the east.

By Deric Rush
Published: Oct. 20, 2023 at 5:53 PM CDT

Concrete Exoforms are 3D-printed cement artificial oyster reefs designed by Raleigh-based environmental engineering group Natrx and purchased by the Coastal Conservation Association of North Carolina.

Once the project is complete officials say the reef site will cover 15 acres of the Pamlico River. It is the second artificial reef deployment.

The reefs are being deployed in an effort to provide refuge for oysters, and important fish species such as red drum, and sheepshead for example.

Environmentalists say it’s important to promote biodiversity and vibrance within the river ecosystem.

“They actually lower those into the water and then you know in the next handful of months invertebrates and other things will start to kind of grow on there we’ll have some moisture settle on there next spring and they’ll be great places to fish you know by next summer,” said Jordan Byrum with NC Division of Marine Fisheries.

“There’s been years and years of decline in our fisheries here in North Carolina and I think habitat projects like this are essential so this is one of those steps that that we can take you know using partnerships like this with Natrx that we can actually have an impact on today,” added Matthew Wallin with Coastal Conservation Association.

The department says they plan to have the reefs deployed by the end of the month.

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