Nestled quietly in 3m-deep water in an urban coral reef in Florida, an underwater camera is spying on the different animals that pass through this surprisingly bustling ecosystem.
In recent footage, a curious manatee swims right up to the device, even making eye contact with the camera before floating away.
These docile 'floaty potatoes' have paddle-shaped, beaver-like tails and move slowly around the shallow waters munching on sea grass and other vegetation.
“The most adorable. The most curious. The most magical manatee makes eye contact,” says Coral City Camera while sharing the footage on Instagram.
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Thanks to this underwater camera, people from around the world can sneak a peek into this urban coral reef in Miami, Florida, to see which ocean visitors have decided to stop by.
“The Coral City Camera provides a fish-eye view into the urban marine ecosystem that has developed around the human-made shorelines of Miami,” says Coral Morphologic on the Coral City Camera’s website.
“The project was launched with the idea that the incredible biodiversity living just below the waterline in Miami should be a point of civic pride that engages the public to protect what they know and love.”
The 24/7 livestream recently broke the record for the world’s longest underwater timelapse when it passed 1,000 days of filming.
Although it’s a relaxing way to wind down at home, the footage is also having a real impact on scientific discovery, they say: “While the abundance of fish and marine life makes for a real-life aquarium screensaver you can enjoy all day, the Coral City Camera also serves as a valuable scientific tool to monitor the health and wellbeing of this underwater life in a non-invasive fashion.”
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