Offbeat | Underwater wedding honors Christ of the Deep anniversary

Kimberly Triolet and Jorge Rodriguez exchanged their wedding vows underwater beside a 2.7-meter statue of Jesus Christ.
The Miami couple were wed beneath the waves Tuesday to help mark the 50th anniversary of the installation of the Christ of the Deep statue. The bronze sculpture is a subsea icon in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
For the traditional wedding kiss, the bride and groom removed their SCUBA breathing mouthpieces.
The 9-foot-tall statue was submerged about 7.5 meters deep off of Key Largo on Aug. 25, 1965. It became a symbol for Key Largo’s John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, created in 1960 as America’s first underwater preserve. It is now part of the sanctuary.
The statue is a replica of the Italian “Christ of the Abyss” that was placed in a shallow bay near Portofino, Italy, in 1954.