Life in the afterlife of coral reef cemetery
Underwater mausoleum made to encourage a healthy ecosystem
MIAMI A year after Will and Daniel Payne lost their mom, and nearly two decades since their father’s death, it is time to follow their wishes for the afterlife.
As they board a boat with three generations of family, the brothers slip into flippers and de-fog their masks. Will Payne, who became a certified scuba diver just days earlier, checks his oxygen tank and jumps into the azure waters to secure a concrete marker mixed with their ashes at a memorial reef about five kilometres out to sea.
This unusual resting place is exactly what the Paynes say their parents wanted. Buel Payne, a former Coast Guard member, and Linda Payne, who grew up on the water and loved boating, will spend their afterlife in a memorial modelled after the lost city of Atlantis, among impressive lion statues, ornate gates and pillars encrusted with sea life.
It took nearly four years for multiple government agencies to sign off on this underwater mausoleum, which is designed to encourage a healthy ecosystem. Roughly a decade later, the Neptune Memorial Reef is home to the cremated remains of 1,500 people, and any snorkeller or scuba diver can visit.
The Paynes are the first to be memorialized in the reef ’s expansion, which opened this summer and will make room for an additional 4,000 memorials over 6.5 hectares, about 12.2 metres deep. Placements start around US$1,500 and can go up to US$8,000, with the priciest placements for specialized shapes such as sea turtles and stingrays or for prominent spots throughout the city, like the lions.
With reefs struggling worldwide against coral bleaching and other threats, the memorial’s builders are providing coral a head start. The concrete structures offer a high pH level, enabling sea creatures to flourish.
“We’re seeing animals here that we haven’t seen before. Ones that have been missing for a long time,” says Jim Hutslar, the reef ’s operations director and one of the founders. “We actually found a long spine sea urchin that was considered extinct in the Caribbean Sea.”
Sara Thanner, an environmental supervisor for the Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources, says an April survey showed the reef supports more than 65 different types of fish, shrimp and lobster and 75 other species including sponges, soft corals, and hard corals.
For people making end-of-life plans, the reef means being part of something living. Hutslar is hoping that decades from now, the memorial will have grown into a massive coral reef where individual markers will no longer be distinguishable, and “family members will just know their loved ones are part of it.”
“We’re creating life after life,” he says.
While Hutslar, Will and another diver descend to the ocean floor, Daniel and his wife and three children snorkel on the surface, gazing down through the strong clear currents. They spot a parrot fish, barracuda and a monster snook. Abundant schools of small, colourful fish dart in and out of the sculptures.
They had chosen a small bronze headstone reading “Together at Last” to mark the ashes, adding their thumbprints on a decorative concrete sea shell. The divers pick a spot amid the striking columns and statues.
“It’s just amazing. It’s so peaceful,” Will, 48, of Sachse, Texas, says after surfacing. “If there is a heaven, that would be it for them.”
Back on the boat, the family snacks on cookies and oranges and enjoys a day at sea, laughing, hugging and, at times, crying. The men’s aunt and uncle brought red roses that each member of the family tosses overboard.
Daniel Payne, 41, of Princeton, Texas, says he plans to get scubacertified so he can see it up close, and return every year.
“I really didn’t get it when (my mom) was telling me about it and the more and more I think about it, it’s really a nice, peaceful spot for your last resting place,” he says.
Hutslar and his partners were solely focused on supporting marine life at first, figuring the cemetery would help pay for the reef. But he’s helped hundreds of families say goodbye to their loved ones over the years, giving him a calling he’s come to cherish.
“This has actually become my favourite part — being with the families,” he says.