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Florida Keys Underwater Music Festival Encourages Reef Protection

BIG PINE KEY (CBSMiami/FKNB) – A weekend underwater concert underscored reef protection for conservation-minded divers and snorkelers in the Florida Keys, home to the continental United States' only living coral barrier reef.

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Mariah Reynolds pretends to play an artist's interpretation of a trombone at the Underwater Music Festival Saturday, July 13, 2019, in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary off Big Pine Key, Fla. The event, that featured a local radio station's special broadcast piped beneath the sea, featured public service announcements promoting coral reef protection. (Bob Care/Florida Keys News Bureau/HO)

The Lower Keys Underwater Music Festival took place Saturday at Looe (pronounced "Lou") Key Reef, an area of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary south of Big Pine Key. Staged by local radio station US1 104.1 FM, it encouraged fun, environmentally responsible diving and preservation of the world's coral reefs.

"We put music underwater so that the divers and snorkelers and fish and the marine life can enjoy it," said Bill Becker, the festival's director and the station's news director. "And at the same time, we have a serious message about the coral reef.

"(It's) about preserving the reef, about lessening our own impacts to it and being aware of just how important the reef is to the economy of the Florida Keys and to this country."

Music and reef protection public service announcements were broadcast by the radio station and delivered underwater via speakers suspended beneath boats above the reef.

Divers and snorkelers enjoyed ocean-themed songs including the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine," Jimmy Buffett's "Fins" and the theme from "The Little Mermaid."

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Kristen Livengood pretends to play an artist's interpretation of a trombone Saturday, July 13, 2019, at the Underwater Music Festival in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary off Big Pine Key, Fla. The event, that featured a local radio station's special broadcast piped beneath the sea, featured public service announcements promoting coral reef protection. (Bob Care/Florida Keys News Bureau/HO)

Some divers even spotted mermaids swaying beneath the waves. They and other costumed characters strummed air guitar and pretended to play replica underwater musical instruments like a "barra-tuba" and "trom-bonefish" sculpted by Lower Keys artist August Powers.

(©2019 CBS Local Media. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Florida Keys News Bureau contributed to this report.)

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