Mexico is getting prepared to host the world’s largest underwater museum. About 400 concrete figures will be lowered under the water in the Caribbean, a popular resort place with tourists not far from Cancun, which according to Mexican authorities, will attract tourist- divers to resort. This will influence at the same time into the shift of their attention from the coral reefs that have already suffered from the excessive interest of divers.
The thing is that each year, almost 300 thousand tourists visit the National Park of the West Coast in Quintana Roo on the Yucatan peninsula. Inexperienced divers examining the coral reefs often are breaking the corals into pieces with the flippers and spoil the air. Furthermore, this area has not received the status of a national park resort so tourists can climb up on the reefs, walk on them, crush and carry away the pieces, destroying the unique ecological structure.
According to the director of the National Park of the West Coast, to restore the original state of reefs may be possible only when the attention of divers will be diverted by something else which will attract the divers more. In the role of substitution the park administration has decided to create an underwater park of sculptures. The project will be led by Jason de Keyrs Taylor, the creator of the world’s first underwater sculpture park, which is located in Granada.
The statues, which will be placed on the seabed, will be made of a PH-neutral concrete, which can house the algae and shellfish, thus developing and maintaining the ecosystem of the coral reefs. Eventually, thanks to the growth of corals on the sculptures their original appearance will be changed. The first four concrete sculptures in human height should be lowered to the bottom in November. And only then the new Submarine Park will be opened for tourists.
