Coral Morphologic, Burial Mounds, and Trespassing With the Weird Miami Bus Tour

S. Pajot

Coral Morphologic's top-secret sea creature experiments.

​Long ago, rivers were dredged and swampland was filled. But still we can't seem to control it all. From the beginning, Miami's been split and shaped in every way by water. Overflowing and dying out and otherwise warping themeselves, skinny streams and fat, man-made channels snake through the city's endless expanses of concrete, underneath I-95, and into our backyards.

This was the core theme of the third (and final) installment of the Bas Fisher Invitational's Weird Miami bus tour. Led by Miami transplant Christy Gast, the trip was titled "Ripe Riparian." It slashed a path from Coral Morphologic to a bait-store-slash-sandwich-shop to an old transit bus powered by vegetable oil.

See the cut for a photo recap of Weird Miami III.

S. Pajot

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The first stop was Coral Morphologic's home studio and laboratory near the crux of NW 7th Street and NW 7th Street Road. Out back, there are tubs full of zoanthids and other sea creatures thriving in the sun and open air.

S. Pajot

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Inside, the tubs sit under rows of grow lights, some creeping back and forth on motorized tracks. Project heads Colin Foord and Jared McKay have slapped black tar paper over the windows, too. Why? There's a good chance that all the lighting and other specialized equipment could lead cops, thugs, and weedheads to believe that something other than coral is being grown here. No one wants to get mistakenly busted or robbed.

S. Pajot

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On a biology tip, Coral Morphologic is a licensed aquaculture setup producing corallimorphs, ricordea, and zoanthids for aquariums, universities, museums like the Smithsonian, and hobbyists. On an art tip, it specializes in studio photography and HD video art focused entirely on capturing a filtered and heightened version of the coral's natural fluorescence. For a primer, go see the duo's Flower Animal show at the Biscayne Nature Center Gallery before it closes this Sunday.

S. Pajot

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Lunch was next. And we went downriver to this place called Gandara Marine. On the east bank of the Miami River at 450 NW N. River Drive, it's basically a bait and tackle store that also sells sandwiches, burritos, and ice-cold beer.

S. Pajot

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In giant freezers, there are several varieties of squid and herring and shrimp. But this stuff isn't for eating. It's for fishing. Or, like the signage says, "Not for Human Consumer." Ditto the homemade chum.