In the Gulf of Mexico, seven and a half miles due west of Bonita Beach and 30 feet below the surface grows an artificial reef complex created by The Water School at Florida Gulf Coast University.

Welcome to Kimberly's Reef.

The goal for any artificial reef is to create a habitat to draw fish to an area.

The design of Kimberly's reef, with its 18 cement culverts, is meant to do just that.

While also providing a host of opportunities for experimentation, one department at FGCU is experimenting with ways to make the installation appeal to a wide range of creatures by using ceramics and 3D art.

The idea with this project is to enhance those culverts, so the cement is just a very flat, plain surface.

But these organisms, you know, typically will settle on the skeletons of past corals, and it's this huge organism, this ecosystem that grows on top of itself.

So we are trying to mimic nature by creating these structures that will go on top of that and provide that complexity that will be attractive to a greater degree of biodiversity.

And knowing clay the way I do, it was able to imagine all kinds of different ways that it could do that.

So we got to thinking about, okay, we could make these things that will go on this exterior corner of that culvert.

We can make these things that would go inside the upright culverts that will create ground structure.

And then there's the very attractive top flat surface of the the lying down culverts where our taller, crazier sculptures could go.

The idea with this project was not to create some beautiful sculpture that was meant to be looked at, right?

It's meant to help these organisms take hold and grow and flourish.

Part of the initial scientific process was determining what material would be most durable when crafting structures for under the water.

So we chose to use two different clay bodies earthenware, which is a lower temperature clay.

It's quite hard, but still relatively porous and somewhat less durable as a result.

The higher temperature clay is the stoneware and that is fired up to the point where the clay body sort of fully glassifies.

It has a glassy matrix.

It's very hard, it's very durable.

Scientists from the water school asked Macy and Tricia to create tiles to see what life attaches to various surfaces.

It's a way of understanding the potential for growth in any particular area.

So we made four different types of ceramic tiles, all in the same size, but with different levels of structural additions.

The introduction of of a more textured, more complex surface.

Those were just pulled up and are starting to be examined for what exactly is growing on there.

But you can see growth very, very, very quickly on the most textured tiles.

They like the texture.

They like the additional structure.

The next step for the art team was extruding a variety of shapes, sizes and textures out of clay.

So we're starting out with the easiest things to install these sort of multiple structures that we put together to go on the inside of the face up cover.

But we are hoping to see sedentary organisms that will adhere to the surface of the clay, like corals, like oysters and those kinds of organisms.

So that's how we've designed these.

Like the clay is porous, so it will help the coral larvae take hold and settle.

But then we've also created them to be interesting structures for fish.

So there are places to hide, places to swim through to encourage that kind of activity.

The tables full of sculptures will slowly be added to each culvert.

Macy and Tricia got to see their first structures deployed.

These objects are for scientific monitoring.

So we have photographed every single piece.

We have tagged them all well be creating a whole catalog so that as the monitoring happens over time, you can say, Oh my goodness, number 35 is really growing like crazy.

You know, what is that?

And hopefully, you know, in a couple of years, these structures will be completely covered over and we won't be able to see them at all.

And we will have accomplished our goal in that.

And for Macy, a project like this is a perfect fit for a student with a double major in biology and art.

So my dream is that I will be able to study the organisms that have settled on these artworks that we've created together and get to really see the impact of our work.

What art helps to do is to facilitate.

It's like a bridge between science and the public.

So it packages science in a way that's easy for people to understand and encourages them to to care about these things and what they care about to help support, so.

Major support for Kimberly's Reef is provided by Bodil and George Gellman, who believe the human spirit is behind every scientific discovery.