There’s something surprisingly soothing about watching fish and other aquatic animals quietly going about their business in another part of the world. That’s probably why projects such as the Fish Doorbell and Beluga Cam have gained such popularity across the globe.
But these underwater videos can also have important scientific value. For example, the creators of Coral City Camera – a 24/7 livestream broadcasting from an urban reef in Miami – say their project has become the world’s longest underwater timelapse.
The filming began on 1 May 2023 and was still running 1,000 days later (28 January 2026). During that time, the reef was subjected to extreme heatwaves and the Coral City Camera caught it all on film.
“This period covers summer 2023’s unprecedented coral bleaching mortality event, and indeed multiple corals can be seen bleaching, but then recovering and growing through 2024 and 2025 into 2026,” says Coral Morphologic in a statement.
In particular, they are interested in the recovery of a strain of staghorn coral called Acropora cervicornis or ACER ‘Ventura’. “Not only did it not bleach, but has grown swiftly,” they say. “In just four years, a single branch of ACER Ventura has increased thousands of times in biomass, to the point that we now have one of the densest thickets of this endangered coral in the state of Florida!”
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In recent months, the corals haven’t just had to worry about the heat but also cold winter waters. “We recorded late summer temps reaching 90F (32.6C) and recent 2026 winter lows of 60F (15.5C),” says Coral Morphologic. “This represents a huge range of thermal tolerance for this strain of critically important reef-building coral, and a reminder that corals grown for nearshore reef restoration in Florida need cold-stress adaptation as well as heat-stress.”
While they try to discover the secret of which corals are more resilient – and why – watching their cameras might help to unveil important clues. “There is no underwater coral reef site anywhere in the world that has been as thoroughly recorded and archived,” they say.
Image and video credit: Coral City Camera by Coral Morphologic
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