Largest underwater museum in Mexico

Melbourne: Mexico is set to build the world’s largest underwater museum in the Caribbean sea near Cancun. Around 400 concrete figures will be submerged in the sea for the Subaquatic Sculpture Museum to be located at the West Coast National Park in Quintana Roo, on the Yucatan Peninsula. The underwater local ecosystem will benefit from the PH neutral concrete, which will allow algae and small invertebrates to flourish. An added advantage will be that it may lure away 300,000 yearly tourists, from the area’s natural coral reefs. "If they (tourists) swim near the corals, the divers with little experience might kick them with a fin or hit them with the oxygen tank," News.com.au quoted director of the West Coast National Park, Jaime Gonzalez as telling a news agency. He added, "Before it was declared a park, the tourists even climbed up the corals and walked on top of them, breaking and shattering them." "The underwater museum will draw many tourists, allowing us to give a rest to the natural reefs. It`s like a restoration process." Popular underwater artist Jason de Caires Taylor, who worked to build the world’s first underwater sculpture park, is in-charge of the project. He said, “The installations, designed to form artificial reef structures, will encompass a monumental body of work consisting of over 400 figurative pieces.” “Drawing on various influences, the works will include both contemporary and Mayan narratives and develop the use of live propagated coral within the structures. The final piece will be entitled: La Evolución Silenciosa, the silent evolution.” The museum is scheduled to open next month with four human-sized sculptures. ANI