Humans don鈥檛 know what they鈥檙e missing under the surface of a busy shipping channel in the 鈥渃ruise capital of the world.鈥�
Just below the keels of massive ships, an underwater camera provides a live feed from another world, showing marine life that鈥檚 trying its best to resist global warming.
That camera in Miami鈥檚 Government Cut is just one of the many ventures of a marine biologist and a musician who鈥檝e been on a 15-year mission to raise awareness about dying coral reefs by combining science and art to bring undersea life into pop culture.
Their company 鈥� Coral Morphologic 鈥� is surfacing stunning images, putting gorgeous closeups of underwater creatures on social media, setting time-lapsed video of swaying, glowing coral to music and projecting it onto buildings, even selling a coral-themed beachwear line.
鈥淲e aren鈥檛 all art. We aren鈥檛 all science. We aren鈥檛 all tech. We are an alchemy,鈥� said Colin Foord, who defies the looks of a typical scientist, with blue hair so spiky that it seems electrically charged. He and his business partner J.D. McKay sat down with The Associated Press to show off their work.
One of their most popular projects is the Coral City Camera, which recently passed 2 million views and usually has about 100 viewers online at any given time each day.
鈥淲e鈥檙e going to actually be able to document one year of coral growth, which has never been done before in situ on a coral reef, and that鈥檚 only possible because we have this technological connection right here at the port of Miami that allows us to have power and internet,鈥� Foord said.
The livestream has already revealed that staghorn and other corals can adapt and thrive even in a highly urbanized undersea environment, along with 177 species of fish, dolphins, manatees and other sea life, Foord said.
鈥淲e have these very resilient corals growing here. The primary goal of us getting it underwater was to show people there is so much marine life right here in our city,鈥� Foord said.
McKay, meanwhile, sounds like a Broadway producer as he describes how he also films the creatures in their Miami lab, growing coral in tanks to get them ready for closeups in glorious color.
鈥淲e essentially create a set with one of these aquariums, and then obviously there鈥檚 actors 鈥� coral or shrimp or whatever 鈥� and then we film it, and then I get a vibe, whatever might be happening in the scene, and then I soundtrack it with some ambient like sounds, something very oceanic,鈥� McKay explained.
Their latest production, 鈥� Coral City Flourotour, 鈥� will be shown on the New World Center Wallscape this week as the Aspen Institute hosts a major climate conference in Miami Beach. Foord is speaking on a panel about how the ocean鈥檚 natural systems can help humans learn to combat impacts of climate change. The talk鈥檚 title? 鈥淭he Ocean is a Superhero.鈥�
鈥淚 think when we can recognize that we鈥檙e all this one family of life and everything is interconnected, that hopefully we can make meaningful changes now, so that future generations don鈥檛 have to live in a world of wildfires and melted ice caps and dead oceans,鈥� Foord told the AP.
Their mission is urgent: After 500 million years on Earth, these species are under assault from climate change. The warming oceans prompt coral bleaching and raise the risk of infectious diseases that can cause mass die-offs in coral, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Stronger storms and changes in water chemistry can destroy reef structures, while altered currents sweep away food and larvae.
鈥淐limate change is the greatest global threat to coral reef ecosystems,鈥� NOAA said in a recent report.
That gets at the second part of Coral Morphologic鈥檚 name. 鈥淲hat does it mean to be morphologic? It really means having to adapt because the environment is always changing,鈥� Foord said.
The staghorn, elkhorn and brain coral living in Government Cut provide a real-world example of how coral communities can adapt to such things as rising heat and polluted runoff, even in such an unlikely setting as the port of Miami. Their video has documented fluorescence in some of the coral, an unusual response in offshore waters that Foord said could be protecting them from solar rays.
鈥淭he port is a priceless place for coral research,鈥� Foord said. 鈥淲e have to be realistic. You won鈥檛 be able to return the ecosystems to the way they were 200 years ago. The options we are left with are more radical.鈥�
Beyond the science, there鈥檚 the clothes. Coral Morphologic sells a line of surf and swimwear that takes designs from flower anemones and brain coral and uses environmentally sustainable materials such as a type of nylon recycled from old fishing nets.
鈥淲e see the power of tech connecting people with nature. We are lucky as artists, and corals are benefitting,鈥� Foord said.
鈥擟urt Anderson And Cody Jackson, The Associated Press
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