7-mile underwater snorkel trail, artificial reef nears

The first installations of the Reefline, a project intended to become a seven-mile underwater snorkel trail and artificial coral reef in Miami Beach, could be sunk offshore by summer.

The endeavor is led by Bluelab Preservation Society, a non-profit focused on ocean pollution, water quality and climate change, in collaboration with the City of Miami Beach and scientists from the University of Miami and Coral Morphologic, a group that produces audio and visual media focused on coral reefs.

“Florida’s coral reef is the third largest in the world, and it’s dying,” said Bluelab’s founder and artistic director Ximena Caminos. According to its master plan developed by architect Shohei Shigematsu/OMA, the line will be a series of underwater public art installations connected by a breakwater.

Last year, Miami Today reported, project representatives told Miami Beach’s Sustainability Committee that the first art installation could be in the water by December 2021. But Ms. Caminos said the process was delayed by covid, and the team is now shooting for a summer sinking.

However, December was not uneventful for the Reefline. During Art Week, Bluelab collaborated with artists and tech companies to raise money and awareness through a handful of physical installations and the sale of non-fungible tokens, a type of data unit commonly used for the sale of virtual art.
One of these installations was artist Refik Anadol’s Machine Hallucination: Coral, which was shown on the beach in the Faena District of Miami Beach. Aorist, a non-fungible token marketplace, also partnered with artists including Mr. Anadol to sell a series of tokens and donate over 50% of the proceeds to Reefline.

The project, Ms. Caminos said, is to be funded by grants and private investors including the Miami-based Knight Foundation, which chose Reefline as a winner of the Knight Arts Challenge in 2019.

By the time the first module is sunk, she said, the running tab will be $500,000 to $800,000. This includes, she said, startup, permitting, research and master plan costs, and the price of subsequent modules is to be lower.

The first module, according to a press release, will consist of two art installations: a model of an underwater “traffic jam” inspired by a former Art Week feature, and an “underwater folly” resembling a circle made of spiral underwater staircases designed by OMA. They will be sunk in 15 to 20 feet of water off of Miami Beach’s Fourth Street. Once this is complete, she said, Bluelab can finish the process of securing permits from the Army Corps of Engineers.

The exact amount of artistic installations that will be sunk along the trail, Ms. Caminos said, is yet to be determined. Open calls and competitions for artists, she said, will be used to find the creators of future modules.

Currently, Ms. Caminos said, scale models of the first installations are being constructed for testing in UM’s wave simulator, which can imitate category five hurricanes. The material they are ultimately made out of, she continued, will encourage habitation by aquatic life.

“For marine life to thrive you need these natural structures, and they’re not there anymore,” Ms. Caminos said. Proof of concept for artificial reefs in Miami Beach, she said, already exists.

One example is the Jose Cuervo Reef, a 10,000-pound concrete bar that was sunk in the year 2000, according to the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau. Recent photos and videos of the structure, including some on the Reefline Instagram, show it coated in corals and surrounded by various fish and wildlife.

Resources: https://www.thereefline.org