ISLA FUERTE, Colombia, June 6, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - 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.

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.

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.

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.