By Hannah Morse
Posted Aug 22, 2019 at 12:01 AM
Adding to its cache of artificial reefs, Palm Beach County Environmental Resources Management on Wednesday morning will deploy 100 tons of concrete donated by GL Homes and 18 sculptures created and donated by Boynton Beach-based artist Chris O’Hare.
Mermaids will lurk beneath the waters near Palm Beach. Well, sort of.
Adding to its cache of artificial reefs, Palm Beach County Environmental Resources Management on Wednesday morning deployed 100 tons of concrete donated by GL Homes and 18 sculptures created and donated by Boynton Beach-based artist Chris O’Hare through a project called 1000 Mermaids.
″[This is] the first time we have this many in one group together,” said Jena McNeal, artificial reef coordinator with the county department.
The sculptures and concrete will be placed about a mile southeast of the Lake Worth Inlet, in area of artificial reefs created from the former Riviera Beach Marina and the old Flagler Bridge. McNeal said this site is good for divers with any level of experience because the depth reaches just 45 feet.
Eight feet feet high and weighing two tons each, the sculptures depict mermaids and abstract coral reefs.
Some are sprayed with calcium carbonate, giving the sculptures a stark white hue, which will act as a good base for corals and other marinelife to grow, McNeal said.
Although sea turtles, groupers and other animals will be a major draw for divers, this artificial reef site stands apart from others. Some of the sculptures will feature poetry and one serves as a selfie station where divers can pose with a mermaid tail.
This isn’t the first time O’Hare has produced an artificial reef. After he learned about the death of Andrew “Red” Harris, O’Hare designed submersible artwork, what he calls now a “reef cell.”
Harris died in a 2014 snorkeling accident near DuBois Park in Jupiter.
>>MORE: Artificial reef slated for Jupiter as a memorial to Andrew “Red” Harris
O’Hare’s reef cells are designed to “maximize the productive capacity of the artificial reef by providing many interconnected cavities and internal surfaces exposed to sunlight and water current,” according to his website. Before becoming an architectural artist, O’Hare was a landscape architect.
The concept for 1000 Mermaids came about a little more than two years ago, when Fort Lauderdale-based artists of Miami Body Cast, Sierra Rasberry and Ernest Vasquez, were introduced to O’Hare.
Combining their strengths, the team developed mermaid artificial reefs, the first of which were deployed Wednesday.
As long as there are resources and funding, the group won’t stop at 1,000.
“You can never drop enough [reefs] out there,” said Evan Snow, project manager for 1000 Mermaids.
Vessel registration fees were used to foot the $13,000 bill of deploying these structures.
