A few metres from Ocean Atlas is a coral tree on which Perry Institute staff have anchored 50 pieces of staghorn coral (also critically endangered). Somewhat resembling an old-school TV antenna, the tree holds coral fragments hung like Christmas ornaments. Eventually, Perry Institute staff will move these critically endangered branching corals to an “outplant site,” hoping they will establish themselves among the surrounding reefs to bolster coral populations and genotypes, Harrison says. 

“If we don’t do this work … unfortunately, they will die out, and we’ll lose this type of coral forever,” says Harrison. “We’ve had successes, and of course, we’ve had setbacks, like with the bleaching event that we had in 2023. But after 2023, we have been very successful in our outplanting.”

It’s a roughly 20-kilometre boat ride from Rosewood Baha Mar on the north side of the island to the garden. An ordinarily pleasant jaunt to the island’s southwest corner, the ride was bumpy on this particular day, with whitecaps visible on the open sea. Fortunately, the garden is comfortably tucked away from the building east wind in a cove south of Clifton Bluff.

Joining the two Taylor statues in the garden are other sculptures by Bahamian artists Willicey Tynes and Andret John. Tynes’ Virtuoso Man, holding a staff and peering upward to the ocean surface, was envisioned to provide a “role of the more insightful, wiser, older generation while paying homage to the role of Atlas,” he told a Bahamian newspaper at the garden’s founding in 2014. The garden is Tyne’s brainchild. He took his inspiration from Taylor’s first underwater sculpture garden at Molinere Bay Underwater Sculpture Park in Grenada, installed in 2006. John’s seven-foot Lucayan Mask, meanwhile, presents as a face looking up from the sandy ocean floor, in a distinctively Bahamian Junkanoo art style in honour of the country’s first inhabitants.

Musgrove says the garden is more than just a great place to go for a snorkel. It is a crucial meeting place of conservation and art.

“The idea for the [statues] is that [they will], over time, become an artificial coral reef that coral can grow on; animals can live in the nooks and crevices on the reef, which will eventually help the entire area there and promote more healthy fisheries, a healthier ocean in general,” says Musgrove. 

“People get to experience it so they get to learn more about the location and hopefully they’ll come to protect things that they love.”

The Ocean Guardian Experience runs once a month out of Rosewood Baha Mar and lasts approximately five hours. The experience closes a week prior, and spaces are limited. For those interested, visit rosewoodhotels.com/the-ocean-guardian-experience