The change comes not because they are recovering but because they are now considered \u201cfunctionally extinct<\/a>\u201d in the wild. The move lifts regulatory barriers to allow scientists to aggressively pursue genetic rescue after a 2023 heat wave caused a 98% mortality rate for those species of coral.<\/p>\n Carly Kenkel, associate professor of biological sciences at the University of Southern California and the study\u2019s co-author, explained the grim reality on the reef.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are so few of them left that they can no longer survive without help,\u201d Kenkel outlined. \u201cBasically, it\u2019s in a very small population situation, where when you have so few coral, they\u2019re so far away, they can\u2019t reproduce successfully, nor are there enough of them to actually build the reef.\u201d<\/p>\n NOAA officials said they will be \u201cgardening corals\u201d as a new approach to repopulation, by bringing them into captivity to breed and plant them in an effort to help them maintain a foothold in Florida\u2019s waters. The research leading to the effort comes from a massive collaborative<\/a> involving multiple Florida institutions, nonprofits and NOAA, which conducted urgent assessments during the 2023 bleaching event.<\/p>\n Kenkel believes intensive management of coral is the only path forward but it cannot succeed without parallel action to address the root causes of climate change.<\/p>\n \u201cI think top priority is going to be managing that genetic diversity and there has been, just in the last few years, a genetic management plan developed,\u201d Kenkel pointed out. \u201cA lot of the restoration organizations are on board with this. They\u2019ve been conducting exchanges of individuals very similar to what happens in zoos and aquariums, where we have endangered species and zoos will trade individuals back and forth and breed them very carefully.\u201d<\/p>\n The reclassification pivots Florida\u2019s world-renowned restoration program from simply repopulating reefs to a full-scale genetic rescue mission, a response to catastrophic losses echoing concerns raised during last month\u2019s Climate Week<\/a>.<\/p>\n Florida News Connection is a bureau of the\u00a0Public News Service. Banner photo: Partially bleached corals on Molasses Reef. (Matt Kieffer, CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>, via Wikimedia Commons).<\/p>\n Sign up for The Invading Sea newsletter by\u00a0visiting here<\/a>. To support The Invading Sea,\u00a0click here<\/a>\u00a0to make a donation. If you are interested in submitting an opinion piece to The Invading Sea, email Editor Nathan Crabbe at\u00a0ncrabbe@fau.edu<\/a>.\u00a0To learn more about coral bleaching, watch the short video below.<\/p>\n Bite-sized video: What is coral bleaching?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Trimmel Gomes,\u00a0Florida News Connection In response to research confirming their collapse this fall, the National Oceanic and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[23982,7562,23983,18237,22484,2728,18238,28,30,29,23984,23985,23986,11952,23987,14737],"class_list":{"0":"post-34393","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-climate-action","9":"tag-coral-bleaching","10":"tag-coral-restoration","11":"tag-corals","12":"tag-elkhorn-coral","13":"tag-endangered-species","14":"tag-extinction","15":"tag-florida","16":"tag-florida-headlines","17":"tag-florida-news","18":"tag-floridas-coral-reef","19":"tag-genetic-rescue","20":"tag-global-warming","21":"tag-national-oceanic-and-atmospheric-administration","22":"tag-reclassification","23":"tag-staghorn-coral"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34393","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=34393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Bleached](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Bleached-staghorn-and-brain-corals-at-Sombrero-Key-Reef-in-the-Florida-Keys-in-the-summer-of-2023-10.jpeg\")
Bleached staghorn and brain corals at Sombrero Key Reef in the Florida Keys in the summer of 2023. (Ananda Ellis\/NOAA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)<\/p>\n