Name: Cement cars form new coral reef park in Miami
Uploaded: 2025-12-13T15:56:14.767Z
Duration: 2 min 35 s
Description: A project that blends art, marine conservation and tourism is underway in Miami Beach, Florida. Reefline is an underwater sculpture park and hybrid coral reef.

A project that blends art, marine conservation and tourism is underway in Miami Beach, Florida. Reefline is an underwater sculpture park and hybrid coral reef.

Miami Beach

A new environmental art initiative called Reefline has placed 22 cars made from carbon-capturing concrete on the ocean floor near Miami Beach, aiming to create an artificial reef. Supported by a $5 million grant and six years in development, the project combines public art with marine habitat restoration, with divers arranging the cars to provide homes for fish and other marine life.

The project also involves planting 2,200 lab-grown coral plugs onto the submerged cars, using hardier coral species adapted to warmer waters. The public will soon be able to participate in coral planting, and the reef park is planned to eventually stretch 11 kilometers, serving as both an ecological and cultural legacy for the city.

Cement cars form new coral reef park in Miami

Yet another traffic jam hits Miami, but this one is like no other. 22 cars molded from carbon-capturing concrete are waiting to be dropped to the bottom of the ocean. I like the idea to bring something which we all know to be stuck in a traffic jam down to an experience that is quite extraordinary. This is Reefline, an environmental art project backed by a voter-approved $5 million grant from the city of Miami Beach. We're on our way now to see the culmination of a project that has been six years in the making. One by one, the 13-ton cars are lowered into the water about 180 meters from the Miami Beach shore. Divers carefully guide them into traffic formation, but without frustrated drivers, just fish happy to discover new homes as seen in this artist's drawing of the completed project. We feed them, so they get a very varied diet. What will tie the art and marine life together are the baby coral growing inside this Miami lab. Colin Ford is preparing 2,200 coral plugs to be hand-planted onto the submerged cars during the next few months. Eventually, some of the soft corals that we're growing are going to grow seven feet tall, so it's really going to look like a whole forest growing on this fossilized traffic jam. That's the vision for a Florida reef revival after a 2023 marine heat wave killed off two species of coral further south in the Keys. The coral being grown for the Reefline project are hardier in warm temperatures and have been collected from species that naturally moved into Miami's waters. Soon the public will be able to swim from the beach to the underwater cars where they can dive down and plant even more baby corals. Reefline's founder, Jimena Caminos, says the project will eventually stretch 11 kilometers, with more public art doubling as hybrid reefs added over the years. We're honored to have this possibility today, you know, and to be able to leave such a legacy because this reef will outlive us. A community celebration marks Reefline's successful deployment, now an underwater symbol for humanity's potential to reverse its harm. Heidi Jo Castro, Aljazeera, Miami Beach, Florida.

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