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A12 SCIENCE
Tuesday 10 May 2022

Coral reefs provide stunning images of

a world under assault

and then I soundtrack it with
some ambient like sounds,
something very oceanic,”
McKay explained.
Their latest production,
“ Coral City Flourotour, “
will be shown on the New
World Center Wallscape
this week as the Aspen
Institute hosts a major cli-
mate conference in Miami
Beach. Foord is speaking
on a panel about how the
ocean’s natural systems
can help humans learn to
combat impacts of climate
Staghorn coral clings to rocks near the Coral City Camera, that
livestreams images from along a rock wall, Tuesday, April 19, change. The talk’s title?
2022, at PortMiami in Miami. “The Ocean is a Superhe-
Associated Press ro.”
“I think when we can rec-
By CURT ANDERSON and projects is the Coral City ognize that we’re all this
CODY JACKSON Camera, which recently one family of life and ev-
Associated Press passed 2 million views and erything is interconnect-
MIAMI (AP) — Humans usually has about 100 view- ed, that hopefully we can
don’t know what they’re ers online at any given time make meaningful changes
missing under the surface each day. now, so that future gen-
of a busy shipping channel “We’re going to actually erations don’t have to live
in the “cruise capital of the be able to document one in a world of wildfires and
world.” Just below the keels year of coral growth, which melted ice caps and dead
of massive ships, an under- has never been done oceans,” Foord told the AP.
water camera provides before in situ on a coral Their mission is urgent: After
a live feed from another reef, and that’s only pos- 500 million years on Earth,
world, showing marine life sible because we have this these species are under as-
that’s trying its best to resist technological connection sault from climate change.
global warming. right here at the port of Mi- The warming oceans
That camera in Miami’s ami that allows us to have prompt coral bleaching
Government Cut is just one power and internet,” Foord and raise the risk of infec-
of the many ventures of said. tious diseases that can
a marine biologist and a The livestream has al- cause mass die-offs in cor-
musician who’ve been on ready revealed that stag- al, according to the Na-
a 15-year mission to raise horn and other corals can tional Oceanic and Atmo-
awareness about dying adapt and thrive even in spheric Administration.
coral reefs by combining a highly urbanized under- Stronger storms and
science and art to bring sea environment, along changes in water chemis-
undersea life into pop cul- with 177 species of fish, dol- try can destroy reef struc-
ture. phins, manatees and other tures, while altered currents
Their company Coral Mor- sea life, Foord said. sweep away food and lar-
phologic is surfacing stun- “We have these very resil- vae.
ning images, putting gor- ient corals growing here. “Climate change is the
geous closeups of under- The primary goal of us get- greatest global threat to
water creatures on social ting it underwater was to coral reef ecosystems,”
media, setting time-lapsed show people there is so NOAA said in a recent re-
video of swaying, glowing much marine life right here port.
coral to music and project- in our city,” Foord said. That gets at the second
ing it onto buildings, even McKay, meanwhile, sounds part of Coral Morpholog-
selling a coral-themed like a Broadway producer ic’s name. “What does it
beachwear line. as he describes how he mean to be morphologic?
“We aren’t all art. We aren’t also films the creatures in It really means having to
all science. We aren’t all their Miami lab, growing adapt because the envi-
tech. We are an alchemy,” coral in tanks to get them ronment is always chang-
said Colin Foord, who de- ready for closeups in glori- ing,” Foord said.
fies the looks of a typical ous color. The staghorn, elkhorn and
scientist, with blue hair so “We essentially create brain coral living in Govern-
spiky that it seems electri- a set with one of these ment Cut provide a real-
cally charged. He and his aquariums, and then obvi- world example of how cor-
business partner J.D. McK- ously there’s actors coral al communities can adapt
ay sat down with The As- or shrimp or whatever and to such things as rising heat
sociated Press to show off then we film it, and then I and polluted runoff, even
their work. get a vibe, whatever might in such an unlikely setting
One of their most popular be happening in the scene, as the port of Miami. q