Jason deCaires Taylor Underwater Sculpture

Underwater sculpture park opens

Underwater enthusiasts with a Dive magazine subscription can find out about a new sculpture park built under the sea in Cancun, Mexico.

British artist Jason de Caires Taylor has made the 400 statues which feature in the underwater sculpture park due to open later this month.

The life-size statues, according to Dive magazine, attract marine life, forming a kind of artificial reef in the sea.

It is hoped the attraction will bring visitors to the park, instead of Cancun's Marine Park, to ease pressure and reduce damage to the coral.

All the figures in the park have been cast from moulds of real people, reports Dive magazine.

They are all in shallow water - between four and seven metres deep - meaning they can even be seen from glass-bottomed boats.

The park will be opening on November 27th.

De Caires Taylor spent most of his childhood visiting coral reefs in Malaysia, which sparked his interest in the world under the sea. As well as this, he spent numerous years working as a scuba instructor, such was his love of marine life.