Building a reef—out of yarn!

The Seymour Marine Discovery Center is currently hosting a satellite reef of the Crochet Coral Reef project. Back in the fall, about 350 UC Santa Cruz students and community volunteers began crocheting creatures real and fanciful with yarn and other materials. Satellite reefs have been built all around the world, in this project that unites mathematics, marine biology, conservation, and a love of working with yarn.

Since this isn’t my brainchild I’m not going to go into the background and philosophy of the Crochet Coral Reef project. Instead, I’m just going to show you some photos of the Santa Cruz satellite reef, and encourage you to come see it for yourself. If you happen not to be in the Santa Cruz area, you can click here to find other satellite reefs around the world. You may even want to start your own reef! Note that many satellite reefs are located quite far inland–Colorado, Indiana, Minnesota–so don’t let your lack of a nearby ocean keep you from organizing and building your own reef.

Some of the creatures on the reef are made of garbage or plastic, to remind viewers that the world’s oceans continue to pay the price for human excesses. This jelly, below, has oral arms made from plastic grocery bags.

And see what familiar object was used for this crab’s eyes?

There are multiple species of octopus on this particular reef!

The reef will be on display through October 2017. If you’re in the area before then, swing by and check it out!