Splash of Color: Buoy Paint Night

Splash of Color pairs a paint night with reef repair. Participants decorate buoys that Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium scientists then use to float the coral trees in the lab's offshore field nurseries, where young coral is raised for replanting on Florida's Coral Reef. Each finished buoy becomes part of an underwater gallery that also does a job. When Mote ran the program at a brewery in Islamorada, every painter finished two buoys, keeping one and sending the other to the nursery, with all supplies provided. Mote's coral restoration work is based at its Elizabeth Moore International Center for Coral Reef Research and Restoration on Summerland Key.