Real Coral Reefs of Miami: A Q&A with the marine biologist behind a popular livestream
The city center of Miami may not be the first place that comes to mind with regard to coral. However, the magic city is bordered by two huge national parks – the Glades National Park to the west and the animated waters of Biscay National Park in the east. These protected areas bring an incredible quantity of biodiversity directly in the lively metropolis, including coral reefs.
Coral City’s camera gives viewers an overview of the ecosystem with a live flow from an urban reef located in the port of Miami. The project is a public art and scientific research project of Coral Morphologic and produced with Bridge Initiative and Bas Fisher Invitational. Coral City’s camera began in 2019 and its audience developed while COVVI-19 LOCKDOWNS had thousands of people dreaming of life under the sea. It identified more than 218 species of fish and sharks, and even Lamantin, dolphins, sea turtles, calmars and sea birds.
Popular science spoke with the marine biologist and coralmorphological director Colin Foord of this art and science project, whose motto and mission are “civic pride through biodiversity”. The answers were condensed for more clarity.
Laura Baisas: How did this project started?
Colin Foord: I am a marine biologist and I studied at the University of Miami. I have been growing corals for almost 30 years now, even before my arrival in Miami. In high school, I cultivated corals in my room in New Hampshire. I ended up being much more inspired by artists and musicians of the school. Miami, at the time, crossed a Renaissance linked to Art Basel, and it became a cultural hub of art.
In addition, in Miami, nature does not really have a clear border. We are surrounded by it, and they have [corals] I took advantage of our infrastructure funded by taxpayers to install and prosper. Thus, Coral City’s camera was born from this recognition that we have all this marine life just below the flotation line in Miami, and no one was even really careful.
Kg: What animals do you see on the camera?
See: We are unique in the fact that we have megafauna like Lamantins. These are certainly charismatic. Who does not like a Lamantin? Seeing the sharks was one of the most surprising things. There are a lot of sharks there. Lemon sharks are cool because they are like salmon. The females come back to the place where they were born from PUP and it is therefore clearly a crèche nearby. It’s always surprising when we see sea turtles and dolphins. But I think that one of the things that is also very, very cool about the site is that I started calling it the capital of the world of parrot. We have so many parrot fish and they are a really important part of the ecological health of a coral reef. They eat the algae that competes with coral.
Kg: Why do corals live in the port of Miami?
See: There are not many places in the world where corals are pioneers in places that they could not previously live before humans exist there and that happens to be one of them.
There are sources to come in the bay, so there is a much lower salinity. They also had to flirt with the expedition channel because coral reefs were once terror for ships. So now, each incoming high tide brings clear water to five miles offshore, directly in downtown Miami. It is like a pipeline that brings coral larvae and tropical fish. Then, at low tide, he rinses a lot of nutrients in this water which is good for coral. As long as they get this clean bath between this nutrient and phytoplankton, rich water.
A large part of Miami Beach, the port of Miami, and many of these islands are all flirted out of the mud to start. Because real estate is really what Miami has for sale, the only way to protect this real estate by the water is to build sea walls. These require cement and rocky film to maintain everything together, which then creates the hard substrate that corals and marine life can colonize, so that they have in fact a place to live.
Kg: What role do corals play in the ecosystem as a whole?
See: Corals are therefore community manufacturers. These are the first real estate promoters on planet Earth. They build houses and structures in which all other fish and marine life are attracted. These are the original city manufacturers.
What we see is that the camera has essentially accomplished the same thing in the construction of a human community. I describe it as a bit like a digital campfire.
Kg: How does this project help research conservation, especially since laundering events continue to degenerate?
See: If you are going to restore coral reefs, you need to select coral strains that will be resistant to whitening and stress. What we saw in Coral City’s cameras is that most of the corals from the port of Miami did not bleach in 2023 [when many of Florida’s corals bleached due to extreme heat.]
More exciting, we have this deer strain for an Elkhorn coral which expresses genes linked to resilience, and their microbiome is also very different from the same species that live offshore. We were therefore clearly able to identify that these corals adapt. They are different. When they did not whiten in 2023, it really highlighted the fact that these strains that we have at the port of Miami are probably one of the most precious genetics of the corals that we have throughout Florida, in the least awaited place.
Kg: Why do you think that live cameras like this are important for humans and fauna?
See: It is a technological reminder that we need nature in our lives. He uses technology to bring this nature directly to our offices, in our classrooms. It is a very non -invasive way to appreciate nature. There is no human submarine there. If we want to save the planet, I think that a network of these live streaming cameras is absolutely critical, because that is how the world becomes smaller. This is how people invest in the management of a place that may not be in their own backyard. But it can become your virtual backyard. So when you have children who can be engaged by looking at these happy and healthy creatures in nature.
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