AROUND 750,000 tourists a year visit the national park in Cancun, Mexico, where the recent UN climate talks were held. But an underwater sculpture museum in the park is attracting not just people, but hundreds of swarming grey angel fish.
They arrived just days after the last of four life-size sculptures was submerged in the waters off Cancun.
“The welcome the sculptures received from mother nature was amazing,” said a spokesperson for the Cancun Underwater Museum. Until now, the angel fish were rarely seen around the area.
The underwater sculpture installation shown above, The Silent Evolution, is by artist Jason de Caires Taylor. He used life casts made from materials that encourage coral growth to build the installation on the sea bed off the coast.
It forms a new home for a variety of aquatic creatures at the Cancun and Isla Mujeres National Marine Park and is designed to reduce the impact over half a million tourists have on the area’s natural reefs every year, the artist said.
The project is backed by Cancun’s environment ministry. Entrance to the museum is free, and visitors will be able to snorkel or dive so they can see the sculptures.