Centuries ago, oyster reefs calmed wave action in the Chesapeake Bay and served as a natural protection for shorelines.

Most of them are gone now. Down more than 95% from historic levels. Erosion and sea level rise are most definitely not gone, and Karl Willey thinks oysters are the answer — even in just a few feet of water.

The oyster restoration manager for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation watched Wednesday as heavy equipment carried perforated concrete domes, called reef balls, out to the construction site of a living shoreline off Glebe Bay in Edgewater, placing them in the intertidal zone where the water level ebbs and flows.

The Arundel Rivers Federation is leading the project and said it is the first of its kind in the region.

While it’s used reef balls and oysters in the past, this is the first time the structures are intended to work in a shoreline and marsh restoration efforts, said Nancy Merrill, a spokeswoman for the local environmental group.

“It’s the marrying of two filters,” she said.

The bay foundation is helping fund and manage the oyster side of things, Merrill said.

Even if the balls never flourish with oysters, the structures should provide protection for the shore and habitat for other creatures. Fish and crabs already have been spotted darting between the concrete domes, Merrill said.

Willey said other states have found success using reef balls close to shore, and there are a few things he hopes to learn from the intertidal reef balls on Glebe Bay.

In the winter, he said, some oyster reefs struggle during a “blow out tide” of extremely cold water temperatures.

“We’re thinking that these reef balls, being a massive heat sink, will help keep the warmth on the oysters and hopefully survive during any blow out period in the winter,” Willey said.

He also hopes the reef balls could be the site of recruitment — new baby oysters — drifting over from a sanctuary in Glebe Bay that has been nourished by oysters from the Marylander’s Grow Oysters program.

The shoreline project will include 300 reef balls, dispersed more densely at one end to combat wave action and more sparsely at the other to make way for the addition of a marsh.

There is an oyster larvae shortage at the Horn Point hatchery in Cambridge, but thanks to a connection in Virginia, Willey said they were able to purchase 10 million for this project. Reef balls with the oyster spat as they’re called once they’re attached will be added to the project next week.

Merrill said plants will be added to the project later this year.

“It’s going to be a great experiment to see how they will work with each other,” Willey said.