Jordan and Carmen had not found a way to keep many of the largest creatures on Earth captive within their protective reefs. The Cetaceans where air breathers and would not survive the aftermath of the bombardment.
They decided that any saved was better than none so blue whales, Narwhals, and white sided dolphins were placed in the area between the outer an inner reefs. The ratio was three males and nine females. Manta ray, whale sharks and basking sharks were added in the same ratio.
Seals of three species were added as well as elephant seals and walrus. Spinner dolphins and sea otters completed the seeding, nine males and twenty seven females of each.
The lagoon between the inner reef and the outer reef was extensive. It went all around Cel, a one hundred kilometer diameter island, and in some stretches was five kilometers wide. There were four islands within the lagoon for the pinnipeds to sun themselves and hopefully reproduce. Sea birds soon colonized the islands.
The average depth was a hundred meters but there were stretches down to five hundred meters.
Fresh water dolphins and pink dolphins were placed in the lower portions of the four rivers as were the manatees. Only the manatees would venture into the sea and that was for quick trips to Mr. Wu's and back. They had learned that heads of lettuce and cabbage floated nearby at times.
Food for the ones in the outer lagoon required a major project, the whales needed krill and krill needed plankton and the plankton needed nutrients so an upwelling current was created for the inside of the outer lagoon.
It was a long somewhat wide tube drilled through the outer reef that opened at five thousand meters below the surface into a natural upwelling outside the reef.
It was not left open as barriers were placed at its entrance and the tube itself was porous so nutrients and small fauna could be drawn into the upward current through its sides. Powering it was a large propeller adapted from an ocean liner and run by the electricity produced by the rods surrounding the outer reef. It was designed and built to run at least a hundred years. It could also be shut off and had three speeds.
The speeds were set to coincide with the speed of the upwellings of the Galapagos islands. The opening at the base of the outer reef was pointed clockwise and there was soon a clockwise current within the lagoon. Soon all the denizens began to swim counter-clockwise in the circular lagoon.
Most creatures stopped and stayed by the output pipe, that area became a tourist attraction but that was not what the rangers had hoped for so the fan was turned off.
Some creatures turned back but most continued to swim counter clockwise, that was where the food was coming from. When the bulk of the creatures was halfway around the island the fan was turned back on. As they neared the opening it was switched off again.
When the upwelling was first turned on it took two months for the waters between the reefs to appreciably cool. The three stands of giant kelp had survived the period and all the denizens had time to adjust. The water temperature was down to seventeen Celsius.
The rangers noted the increase in activity from the Cetaceans and the Pinnipeds. The also noted there were creatures in the colder water that had not been placed there. Soon submersibles were in the waters between the reefs surveying the population..
Many benthic organisms had begun to populate the bottom and the lower sides of both reefs. The nightly migration from the bottom to the top by many organisms had also been established. Both of those findings gladdened the rangers.
Several species of fish that had not been part of the original seeding were also present but the rangers were fine with those.
One item of concern was the the booming call of an underwater creature no one recognized. There was also a soft singing call that instruments told the scientists came from the same creature.
The habitat was established before the protective dome had ever been deployed. During that time period several high tides had covered the outer reef but only to about four centimeters. Still two seals had crawled over the five meter wide top and gone into open ocean. The new creature could have come in at those times.
The loud booming sound was heard only as high tide approached and only the song like sounds at other times. Soon there were several booming calls from the lagoon and they were now heard at every quadrant of the reef.
Before the Gulf impact the shield was raised and Cel was no longer in contact with the environment outside the outer reef. The booming calls continued before each high tide but the number of individuals making them diminished until the Bombardment then all such calls ceased.
The rangers and Cel were soon going from crisis to crisis, the shield stayed higher than the reef for ten years.
The ecologists decided to allow some of the upwelling waters to invade a shallow lagoon inside the first reef.The break would be up current from an area populated by mangrove trees. An opening a quarter of a meter wide was made between the inner and outer lagoons at the base of the inner reef.
The reasoning was that the mixing of the waters would enrich the mangrove basin and increase the yield of food forms to the inner lagoon. The fish and crustacean creatures there were close to dropping below sustainable numbers.
In the inner reef the bottom was only one meter deep close to the shoreline and two meters deep at the reef.
Although there was an average of a one hundred meter gap between the beaches and the inner reef there were areas with two hundred and fifty meter gaps which included the mangrove shelf.
By the time the shield had begun to be lowered the numbers had recovered enough to once again allow fishing in both lagoons.
The top of the inner reef was covered with a solid pathway as wide as a two lane highway that all could walk, in fact an annual race around the island had been initiated and over one hundred had participated in the long race. Regardless of where they started all the competitors ended their race in Felicity. None had actually run all the way around, that distance was over six hundred kilometers,
The inner reef was connected to the shore about a thousand meters apart. The bridges from beach to reef had wide spaces underneath to allow the free circulation of the waters. Wide steps on the reef allowed citizens to got to the top. Suspended fishing piers extended ten meters away from the reef on the outer lagoon side as did ten meter wide diving platforms on both sides of the reef.
All structures were made of the same material as the reef and creatures attached themselves to it. The junction of bridges and reef were popular snorkeling sites.
They also provided Cel with a big surprise, mermaids.
As she shield came down and the Earth warmed people began to see creatures sunning themselves on the inner diving platforms. They normally slid into the water if they saw someone.
