Ways to commemorate and remember our loved ones are set to expand with the establishment of artificial reef memorials in the UK, made from human ashes.

Resting Reef's innovation blends death care services with biodiversity restoration by creating artificial reefs using up to three kilograms of cremated ashes combined with crushed shells and sustainable concrete.

The ashes are high in calcium phosphate, and the memorial reefs are scientifically proven to enhance marine growth. Each is designed to feature a variety of heights, textures, balconies and tunnel systems, creating and supporting diverse habitats for different species.

Plymouth Breakwater, a 1,560 meter-square stone structure protecting the harbour, Plymouth Sound, has been selected as a viable site to replace degraded seabed with artificial memorial reefs.

With views of golden beaches and clear waters, Resting Reef founders Louise Skajem and Aura Murillo hope the location will provide a peaceful and meaningful resting place for loved ones while enhancing marine habitats.

In an exclusive Q&A with Make Water Famous, Skajem and Murillo discuss their journey from initial concept to pilot trial in Bali, Indonesia and UK expansion, the changing cultural attitudes to death, and the challenges faced as a mission-driven start-up.

Resting Reef uniquely blends environmental restoration and deathcare services. What inspired you to start this project and how did your backgrounds shape the concept?

Louise Skajem: Aura and I met while studying master's degrees at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London in 2021. We were exploring design directions, and I was researching the uses and properties of seaweed and other marine species, focusing on usable materials and sustainability.

Aura Murillo: I was researching the topic of death following the unexpected passing of my father some years before. It was an experience that transformed the way that I view life, so part of the master's was researching why death is a taboo and gathering stories from around the world of the rituals, traditions, and alternatives for the death care industry.

LS: After many conversations and bouncing around research, we decided on a design solution that supported reef restoration, with an initial focus on native oyster reefs. In UK waters, there has been a 95% decline in native oyster reefs and an 85% decline worldwide, which is a problem that the public is not very aware of.

However, the question of what design solution could help reverse the decline of native oyster reefs remained unanswered. We embarked on an intensive ideation session and came up with all types of ideas. It was only when Aura brought forward her perspective on death care that things changed.

AM: I had come across an urn made of salt that dissolves when it is put in water, but we asked what if the urn does not dissolve, and the ashes do not disperse, but become the foundation for marine life in and of themselves as artificial reef structures?

At the beginning, it was a bit of a crazy idea, but we knew it was something novel, so we continued development, interviewing UK specialists in engineering, marine biology and deathcare services.

Death care services can be a polluting industry with hardly any sustainable alternatives to traditional burials and cremations. We saw that our idea could be valuable, and Resting Reefs was born and incorporated as a business in 2022.

The idea started with a focus on oyster reefs, but depending on the areas that we restore now and in the future, it is important to investigate local species and restoration needs and adapt. For example, since working in Bali, an island in Indonesia, the focus has been on coral reef restoration, which proves Resting Reefs is adaptable to different marine environments.

How long have you been working in Bali and what does it involve?

LS: Working in Tulamben, Bali, was a curveball for us. Establishing Resting Reefs in the UK is always our big goal, but at the beginning, when we were looking to pilot our artificial reef memorials, it simply was not feasible for us as a startup, because of the high licensing and approval costs.

By June 2024, we had successfully crowd-funded to do a pilot of Resting Reef in marine environments, but where? Our team member, Dr Zack Boakes, told us he had been working for seven years with a local community in Bali that understands the benefits of reef restoration and is open to pilot projects, and therefore, already had approvals in place.

The community saw value in our proposal for a Resting Reef pilot as a sustainable model for their own reef restoration efforts and as an opportunity to inject restoration funding into the area, which meant everything fell into place for our first ever pilot.

AM: Since the pilot began in the summer of 2024, we have placed several pet ash artificial reef memorials onto the seabed, and we are in the process of monitoring the reefs and understanding the impact on different species. We have already seen 14 times more biodiversity within our artificial reefs than in nearby degraded areas, and 84 different species of fish have been attracted.

The pilot for the pet memorial reefs has been so positive that we are now expanding to human ash memorials with the approval from local authorities to proceed. In September 2025, we will be bringing human ashes to our pilot restoration site from our international customers.

To get to this point, we have received six Innovate UK grants, several design awards and were finalists in the Terra Carta Design Lab, a global competition established by King Charles and designer Jony Ive. All this has given us the income to develop full-time with other team members and a studio space to give Resting Reef 100% dedication.

Have you had to adapt Resting Reef for the UK market in terms of cultural attitudes towards death, burials and sustainability?

LS: In the UK, death is a taboo. We have experienced that older generations do not tend to enjoy talking about death, and it is very much something only revealed in a will. Death care usually stops when deciding whether people want a burial or cremation, and discussing other alternatives can make some people very uncomfortable.

However, we can see a generational shift with our and our parents' generation much more open to talking about death, and looking at other death care service ideas.

They see Resting Reef as an exciting idea, with attitudes and perceptions towards death not being something to fear. We think that with Resting Reef, we are also actively changing conversations around death, towards a celebration of life view, alongside the marine restoration aspect.

AM: As part of our work to establish Resting Reef in Plymouth Sound, we are engaging the local community early and having conversations with key stakeholders to gauge response and viability, for example, fishermen, open water swimming and surfer groups, people within death care services, and marine restoration groups.

We have conducted extensive field trips and workshops, and the majority response has been positivity and excitement at the idea of Resting Reef forming part of marine restoration in Plymouth. Locals are very connected to the area, and the idea of staying connected to loved ones after death via the water, and to have an alternative place and way to pay their respects, has many people engaged and motivated to move our plans forward.

As conversations continue, increasing marine literacy among stakeholders has been essential, including what ecosystems exist in Plymouth Sound, what protections are already in place, what restoration work needs to be done, and how Resting Reef fit into that.

This engagement happens alongside the work we must do to ensure we have the correct licences and regulatory sign-off from local government.

What regulatory hurdles have you encountered as part of working towards the pilot in Plymouth Sound?

LS: Part of the process has been working collaboratively to establish exact coordinates for the Resting Reef location.

We then have to apply for a licence from the government Marine Management Organisation (MMO) and contact all relevant bodies that need to be informed and invited to have a say and approve our licence such as Natural England, the Environment Agency, the Crown Estate, and harbourmasters.

AM: It is a very costly and time-consuming process for small to medium-sized enterprises and other pilot restoration projects. The MMO licence process sometimes feels like it is designed more for offshore wind or oil production companies who have vast amounts of capital behind them to absorb the cost of consultations with the MMO, impact assessments, and third-party consultation fees, for example.

So, as part of this process, we are also advocating for more support for marine restoration startup projects and financial structures for licence fees that follow a more banded structure to reflect the varying sizes of businesses and scale of projects.

When do you expect to have the first artificial reef memorials made from human ashes under the sea in Plymouth Sound?

AM: We expect a timeline of between 12-18 months. It is important that we do not lose momentum and keep engaging stakeholders and continue to gather public exposure. We have sufficient demand and are already fielding enquiries from either people who want to memorialise loved ones now or from those who want to be memorialised in the future.

Our memorial reef service offers a personalised experience, including restoration updates, a miniature reef replica, a personalised memorial plaque, GPS coordinates, and a certificate commemorating each memorial. What we do is more than just installing a memorial, and that is it. Resting Reef is a holistic and human-centred service, and we are very proud of that.

LS: We are also collaborating with Plymouth University and master's students specialising in marine restoration for research and project reports, which will continue as the first memorials are put in place and we start to see the ecosystems diversify and biodiversity improve with ongoing monitoring.

What are your longer-term plans for Resting Reef in the UK?

AM: Once we have the licenses we need and we can start installing memorial reefs in Plymouth Sound; we want to establish a baseline for success and look to expand into other areas. Artificial reef structures are not new in UK waters, so we’re fortunate that there is already a well-established and successful precedent there in terms of success.

Of course, memorial artificial reefs made from human ashes are quite new in the UK, but we have confidence, from the conversations we are having and the progress we are making each time, that the possibility of multiple sites around the coast is within our reach, supported by tangible data, and it is really exciting.

What has it been like navigating the journey from university to growing Resting Reef, and what advice would you give to other mission-driven founders?

LS: Doing a startup is not easy. It has definitely been challenging with stressful days, deadlines, anxious moments, and sacrificing family and social life. So, my advice is to do something that you have a personal connection to, that you find value and meaning in.

I am so glad that Aura and I started as good friends as the core of our relationship as co-founders is friendship first and foremost. We are able to be there for each other and keep each other motivated and carrying on, even when things are hard.

AM: The personal element has been very key to our relationship. Every time there is a challenge, we try not to forget that we are human beings with feelings and so we approach things from an emotional side.

Sometimes, founders of start-ups can be very pragmatic, just thinking about the success of the business, but it is not about that all the time. For example, we make sure the people in our team have a personal connection with us and that we are aligned to each other's values and passions for Resting Reefs and a better world in general.

For more information about Resting Reef and to register your interest in a memorial reef visit www.restingreef.co.uk