One Lucky Soul: Underwater Sculptures, Artificial Reefs

Sunday 20 October 2013

Underwater Sculptures, Artificial Reefs

Coral reefs are the Rainforests of the sea. The average reef is a live ecosystem which provides a home to almost 25 percent of all marine species, while the reefs themselves occupy less than 0.1 percent of the ocean surface.

These small yet vital life-sources are under grave threat from climate change, blast fishing, and other environmentally harmful practices. This is why groups of artists from Mexico to Indonesia are gathering together to help recreate the world’s coral reefs. The artists created statues mostly out of cement and sand, which, due their low pH levels, facilitate the natural growth of corals.

There are likewise other creative ways to build artificial reefs, and dumping old metal subway cars into the ocean is one of them. Yes, you heard that right. Beautifying our waters by, not only thinking outside of the ‘box’, but also by using the ‘box’. In actual fact, between 2001 to 2010 the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) dropped 2,580 cars into the Atlantic Ocean, off the coasts of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia, to become artificial reefs. How ingenious. You can on Here see for yourselves how New York City’s subway cars are upcycled while playing the essential role of the reefs.

The featured artwork seen above is titled “Banker” by Jason deCaires Taylor, which is part of the Musea Subacuatico de Arte (MUSA) located in the waters of Cancun.  Enjoy the rest of this stunning collection of artificial reefs.

I wonder if similar sculptured reefs could be installed in the Red Sea, which is already a unique and favourite spot for divers from around the world.

Christ of the Abyss in the Florida Keys

One of 400 life-size sculptures created by artist
Jason deCaires Taylor for the “The Silent Evolution” exhibit in
The Marine National Park of Cancun

Vicissitudes in 2011 in the Moilinere Bay Sculpture
Park, Grenada

Sculpture of a woman covered in coral by Roberto
Diaz Abraham in the MUSA Cancun underwater park

Christ of the Abyss completely covered

The Vicissitudes in the Moilinere Bay Sculpture Park,
Grenada following installation in 2007. The statue is a ring of
26 children which are molded in order to represent different ethnic
backgrounds once again by underwater artist Jason deCaires Taylor

Nine-foot tall bronze statue of “Amphitrite” by Simon Morris in the
Cayman Islands. Amphitrite was the wife of Poseidon, Lord of the Seas
and Queen of the Ocean in Greek mythology

Statue of a man curled up on a Volkswagen Beetle by deCaires Taylor.
This structure is home to thousands of crustaceans and lobsters while
serving as a refuge and breeding grounds for fish

Part of “The Silent Evolution” exhibit by deCaires Taylor at MUSA

Underwater Buddha statue in Bali

The gates to the Neptune Society Memorial Reef in Key Biscayne,
Florida where there is an underwater memorial site that was inspired
by the Lost City of Atlantis which serves as a cemetery for those who want
to be buried under the sea

A sunken Moai at Easter Island in the South Pacific. This statue was
originally constructed for a 1994 Hollywood film, but once it sunk to the
sea bottom it became a home for thousands of creatures