AIRLINK 185.19 Decreased By ▼ -6.93 (-3.61%)
BOP 9.93 Decreased By ▼ -0.18 (-1.78%)
CNERGY 7.29 Decreased By ▼ -0.20 (-2.67%)
FCCL 36.64 Decreased By ▼ -1.00 (-2.66%)
FFL 14.53 Decreased By ▼ -0.45 (-3%)
FLYNG 24.92 Decreased By ▼ -0.21 (-0.84%)
HUBC 126.83 Decreased By ▼ -0.25 (-0.2%)
HUMNL 13.07 Decreased By ▼ -0.34 (-2.54%)
KEL 4.32 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-2.48%)
KOSM 6.06 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-1.78%)
MLCF 42.89 Decreased By ▼ -1.36 (-3.07%)
OGDC 195.44 Decreased By ▼ -4.44 (-2.22%)
PACE 6.29 Decreased By ▼ -0.27 (-4.12%)
PAEL 37.96 Decreased By ▼ -1.18 (-3.01%)
PIAHCLA 16.90 Decreased By ▼ -0.18 (-1.05%)
PIBTL 7.79 Decreased By ▼ -0.02 (-0.26%)
POWER 9.39 Decreased By ▼ -0.22 (-2.29%)
PPL 167.89 Decreased By ▼ -4.39 (-2.55%)
PRL 34.02 Decreased By ▼ -0.57 (-1.65%)
PTC 22.51 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
SEARL 103.97 Increased By ▲ 1.20 (1.17%)
SILK 1.19 Increased By ▲ 0.16 (15.53%)
SSGC 35.95 Decreased By ▼ -1.51 (-4.03%)
SYM 18.10 Increased By ▲ 0.13 (0.72%)
TELE 8.02 Decreased By ▼ -0.19 (-2.31%)
TPLP 11.63 Increased By ▲ 0.05 (0.43%)
TRG 66.16 Decreased By ▼ -0.31 (-0.47%)
WAVESAPP 12.13 Increased By ▲ 0.11 (0.92%)
WTL 1.52 Decreased By ▼ -0.06 (-3.8%)
YOUW 3.81 Decreased By ▼ -0.09 (-2.31%)
BR100 11,562 Decreased By -188.6 (-1.61%)
BR30 33,972 Decreased By -680.5 (-1.96%)
KSE100 110,301 Decreased By -1634.2 (-1.46%)
KSE30 34,387 Decreased By -638 (-1.82%)
Life & Style

Colombian underwater ‘art gallery’ serves as coral home

Published June 6, 2024
Coral grows in a sculpture at the MUSZIF underwater museum in Isla Fuerte, Bolivar department, Colombia, on May 22, 2024. In the Colombian Caribbean an underwater museum protects coral reefs threatened by tourism and climate change. Photo: AFP
Coral grows in a sculpture at the MUSZIF underwater museum in Isla Fuerte, Bolivar department, Colombia, on May 22, 2024. In the Colombian Caribbean an underwater museum protects coral reefs threatened by tourism and climate change. Photo: AFP

ISLA FUERTE, Colombia: On the Caribbean seafloor, an unusual sculpture gallery is taking shape with an equally unusual purpose: to provide homes for corals under threat from tourism and climate change.

Created by potters Hugo Osorio and Pedro Fuentes, 25 figures so far form a sort of artificial reef in the blue waters around the paradisiacal Isla Fuerte, off the coast of Colombia.

They stand 1.5 meters (almost five feet) tall, scattered at a depth of about six meters around the seafloor, attracting visitors – mostly fish, but also divers.

 Guide Orlis Navas dives in the MUSZIF underwater museum in Isla Fuerte, Bolivar department, Colombia. Photo: AFP
Guide Orlis Navas dives in the MUSZIF underwater museum in Isla Fuerte, Bolivar department, Colombia. Photo: AFP

The statues have been placed there since 2018 under an initiative named MUSZIF, started by Tatiana Orrego, a fashion designer and island resident.

The plan is for another 25 to follow.

“When I discovered the deterioration of the island’s natural reefs, I saw in the art project a possibility to protect and enhance the life of corals,” Orrego told AFP.

Orrego had seeded the clay sculptures with baby corals, and watched as they took off.

 View of corals at the MUSZIF underwater museum in Isla Fuerte. Photo: AFP
View of corals at the MUSZIF underwater museum in Isla Fuerte. Photo: AFP

The statues are the “ideal substrate” for the marine invertebrates to grow on, added the creator of Colombia’s first underwater art gallery.

Coral bleaching

Since the beginning of the year, the world has witnessed a massive coral bleaching episode in both the northern and southern hemispheres – the fourth such global event on record and the second in 10 years, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

These events cause corals to die off, affecting the ecosystems that rely on them as well as tourism and food security.

The culprit, according to the NOAA: warming oceans.

Colombia’s corals are spread over a zone equivalent to 100,000 football fields, but more than two-thirds have already suffered from bleaching, according to the environment ministry.

 Photo: AFP
Photo: AFP

Other problems include damage to reefs by divers and tourists directly.

Tourists have been known to break off pieces of coral to bring to the surface, while others cause damage by walking on the structures.

“People don’t understand that coral is a living being,” said Orrego.

The Isla Fuerte gallery receives about 2,000 human visitors a year.

It offers an “alternative space to take tourists without overloading the natural reefs,” Orrego added.

Osorio and Fuentes, who create the coral-housing statues on Orrego’s commission, base their designs on the ancestral creations of the Zenu people, who inhabited the Colombian Caribbean before the Spanish arrived.

“All this comes from our roots,” Fuentes, 48, told AFP.

“We continue with the culture so that it does not get lost,” added Osorio, 59.

Comments

Comments are closed.