{"id":333612,"date":"2026-07-08T21:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T21:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/333612\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T21:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T21:46:10","slug":"south-florida-coral-are-in-hot-water-again-their-caretakers-have-a-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/333612\/","title":{"rendered":"South Florida coral are in hot water again. Their caretakers have a plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

With South Florida facing what could become another summer of blistering ocean heat<\/a>, scientists are bracing for a disastrous coral bleaching season.<\/p>\n

Groups across the state that tend to nurseries growing coral to restore Florida\u2019s ailing reef have started making plans for a worse case scenario. In the Florida Keys, one nursery has begun labeling and preparing to move fragile elkhorn and staghorn coral to cooler, deeper water. Off Key Largo, elkhorn specially bred to be more heat tolerant<\/a> will remain on reefs to test their durability.<\/p>\n

The University of Miami Rosensteil School is leading responses, but each organization will determine its own plan of action.<\/p>\n

Each \u201cwill have a different equation based on the number of people and funding they have,\u201d said UM professor Andrew Baker, the program\u2019s lead. \u201cSo everybody will have a different solution to that equation.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Florida promised to restore a quarter of the state’s reef by 2050. So where’s the funding?<\/a><\/p>\n

Chief on some lists: protecting the last remaining wild elkhorn coral declared functionally extinct last year.<\/p>\n

In 2023, despite frantic efforts to move coral to deeper water and land-based facilities, a marine heat wave fueled by climate change blasted the nurseries and wilted the few remaining wild stands of reef-building elkhorn and staghorn. Few patches of native \u201cFounders\u201d elkhorn remain, with the largest collection now housed in an offshore nursery in Key Largo operated by Reef Renewal USA.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u200at’s really important to maintain the Founders because all of your genetic diversity is wrapped up in those Founders,\u201d said Ken Nedimyer, Reef Renewal\u2019s technical director. \u201cSo keeping those alive is the primary focus of what we’re trying to do right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"On<\/p>\n

On Monday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration upped its alert level for coral bleaching conditions, saying water temperatures could now trigger significant bleaching.<\/p>\n

Since early June, waters around Florida have been steadily climbing, becoming hotter faster than in 2023, when reef after reef sizzled in the Florida Keys and parts of Miami-Dade County. On Monday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration upped its bleaching alert, with conditions now possible for significant bleaching. But Nedimyer said the reef is already showing signs of paling, fueling concerns that fragile elkhorn and staghorn being grown in offshore nurseries to help restore reefs could again be decimated.<\/p>\n

\u200a\u201dIn 2023, the water temperature in the Middle and Lower Keys got so hot, it literally went to 94 degrees in a week,\u201d Nedimyer said. \u201cThose corals didn’t even bleach, they just died.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the wake of the heat wave, nursery restoration efforts pivoted. Different groups operating nurseries in the Florida Keys began coordinating efforts. NOAA awarded UM\u2019s Rosenstiel School a four-year, $16 million grant to oversee efforts by 10 groups. But with an El Nino expected to quiet this hurricane season, producing fewer storms to help cool water, the group\u2019s weekly meetings have focused more often on what to do if another heat wave strikes, Baker said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe issue is not just that coral are going to accumulate more thermal stress but they\u2019re experiencing high stress earlier, when they\u2019re not ready,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s like getting caught with their pants down.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Baker, the heat could be the first real-world test for elkhorn coral specially cross-bred with elkhorn from Honduras that regularly endure hotter waters. The \u201cFloridan\u201d coral were planted off Key Largo in July 2025 and weathered that bleaching season in fine shape.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it wasn\u2019t really a hard test,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019ve got a hard test coming their way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Fabrizio<\/p>\n

University of Miami Rosenstiel School<\/p>\n

Fabrizio Conejo, a PhD student in Andrew Baker’s lab, takes notes on elkhorn found on a Honduran reef.<\/p>\n

At Reef Renewal, Nedimyer said he\u2019s focused on preserving wild elkhorn he\u2019s collected in his nursery and distributed to other groups to maintain genetic diversity. Reef Renewal\u2019s offshore nursery near Key Largo now holds 100 different genotypes and the largest collection of native elkhorn, he said, with others kept at Mote Marine Laboratory and Coral Reef Foundation nurseries.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Reef Renewal staff labelled and organized elkhorn to be moved in coolers to a deepwater nursery and possibly other land-based facilities. Corals expected to spawn in early August will remain until after they reproduce, Nedimyer said.<\/p>\n

\u200a\u201dThese corals are 30, 40 inches across. They’re really big,\u201d he said. \u201cEven if you had a big truck, you could only do 20 or so at a time. So it’s logistically very, very difficult, and they’re fragile, and they’re sensitive to everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also, moving them now could disrupt their once-a-year fling.<\/p>\n

\u200a\u201cIt\u2019s a calculated gamble,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s heat also comes at a time when the state has eliminated promised funding intended to help expand coral restoration programs. In 2023, Gov. Ron DeSantis set a state goal of restoring 25% of the reef by 2050, with $28.5 million budget to get a \u201ccoral pipeline\u201d up and running and then $25 million a year starting in 2027 to maintain the work. Instead, programs have been left scrambling for money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With South Florida facing what could become another summer of blistering ocean heat, scientists are bracing for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-333612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}