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South Florida is seeing a wave of new cars, but they won’t increase traffic or lengthen anyone’s commute. This is because the cars are made of marine-grade concrete and installed underwater.
Over several days late last month, crews lowered 22 life-size cars into the ocean several hundred feet south beachThe project was organized by a group that leads underwater sculpture parks as a way to create man-made coral reefs.
The “concrete coral”, commissioned by the non-profit REEFLINE, will soon be seeded with 2,200 native corals that have been grown nearby miami Laboratory. The project is partially funded by a $5 million city bond Miami BeachThe group is also trying to raise $40 million to expand a potential 11-phase project along an underwater corridor off the city’s 7-mile-long (11-kilometer) beach.
“I think we’re making history here,” said Ximena Cimino, the group’s founder. “It’s kind of unique, it’s a pioneering, underwater rock that’s working together with science, working together with art.”
He conceived the overall plan with architect Shohei Shigematsu, and artist Leandro Ehrlich designed the car sculptures for the first phase.
Colin Ford, who runs REEFLINE’s Miami Coral Lab, said they will soon begin the planting process and create a forest of soft corals over the car sculptures, which will serve as a habitat rich with marine life.
Ford said, “I think it really shows the depth of the artistic message of there being a traffic jam of cars underwater.” “So nature will come back, and we are helping by growing soft corals.”
Ford said he is confident that the native gorgonian corals will thrive because they were grown from survivors of the 2023 bleaching event, where a marine heat wave killed massive amounts of Florida coral.
Plans for future deployment include Petroc Cesti’s “Heart of Okeanos,” modeled after a giant blue whale heart, and Carlos Betancourt and Alberto Latorre’s “The Miami Reef Star,” a group of starfish shapes arranged in a large star pattern.
“What that’s going to do is accelerate the creation of coral reef ecosystems,” Ford said. “It will attract a lot more life and add biodiversity and really promote artificial reef-building here in Florida.”
In addition to being a testing ground for new coral transplants and hybrid reef design and development, Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner hopes the project will create local jobs along with ecotourism experiences such as snorkeling, diving, kayaking and paddleboard tours.
The rocks would be located about 20 feet (6 m) below the water’s surface and about 800 feet (240 m) from shore.
“Miami Beach is a global model for many different issues, and now we’re doing it for REEFLINE,” Meener said during a beach ceremony last month. “I am very proud to work closely with the private market to ensure this continues right here in Miami Beach as a blueprint for other cities to use.”
The nonprofit also offers community education programs, where volunteers can plant coral with scientists, and a floating marine learning center, where participants can get hands-on experience in coral conservation each month.
Camino, the group’s founder, acknowledges that the installation won’t fix all the problems — which are as big as climate change and sea level rise — but he said it could serve as a catalyst for conversations about the value of coastal ecosystems.
“We can show how creatively, collaboratively and interdisciplinary we can all tackle a man-made problem with man-made solutions,” Cimino said.
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associated Press Video journalist Cody Jackson contributed to this report.
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Follow David Fischer on social platforms Bluesky: @dwfischer.bsky.social