Ocean temperatures are climbing once again, and scientists fear Florida\u2019s coral reefs could be headed for another devastating bleaching season.<\/p>\n
Extraordinary steps are now being taken to rescue some of the state\u2019s most valuable and vulnerable coral before the worst of the heat arrives, including an urgent mission to safeguard the last remaining elkhorn coral in Florida.<\/p>\n
Science teams from the University of Miami\u2019s Lirman Coral Restoration Lab are racing to collect select elkhorn coral genotypes from ocean nurseries off the coast of Miami.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now — we\u2019re seeing not only ocean temperatures warming at an alarming rate, but projections are kind of reminiscent of 2023, which was a historic bleaching event,\u201d said Dalton Hesley, program director of Rescue a Reef at the University of Miami.<\/p>\n
The team selected 30 decent-sized elkhorn coral pieces from the nurseries.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey knew where to find these corals within our nurseries. They went around and they selected 30 decent-sized elkhorn pieces,\u201d said Diego Lirman, associate professor of marine biology and ecology at the Rosenstiel School at the University of Miami.<\/p>\n
The corals were carried ashore in coolers and moved to a University of Miami coral hatchery. The fragile corals represent the genetic diversity of Florida\u2019s elkhorn coral and are being protected in anticipation of a possible bleaching event.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re so important and they\u2019re so critically endangered, that we decided that the moment temperatures got above a threshold, a bleaching high temperature threshold, we would act,\u201d Lirman said.<\/p>\n
Just two weeks ago, NOAA raised its coral bleaching alert level for parts of the Florida Reef Tract as ocean temperatures climbed to dangerous levels.<\/p>\n
South Florida has now endured 46 consecutive days of triple-digit heat indices, and early signs of coral bleaching and paling are already appearing at Cheeca Rocks off the coast of Islamorada.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s really concerning right now is we\u2019re already hitting these alert levels this early on in July,\u201d said Dr. Ian Enochs, lead scientist with NOAA\u2019s AOML program.<\/p>\n
As happened in 2023, Mote Marine Laboratory in the Florida Keys has launched an effort to rescue thousands of vulnerable corals from offshore nurseries. The Coral Restoration Foundation is awaiting regulatory approval to begin transferring vulnerable corals to Elbow Key, where cooler water and better flow could help protect them.<\/p>\n
The goal is to preserve the genetic diversity that could one day help rebuild Florida\u2019s reefs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe focus on the most vulnerable. We also have really good genetic tracking, so we know which ones we should prioritize,\u201d Lirman said.<\/p>\n
Scientists say these elkhorn corals are critical because they represent the original genetic diversity of elkhorn coral in the Florida Keys. Because of past bleaching events and disease, only about 100 of these original elkhorn corals remain in the wild. About 30 years ago, they numbered in the thousands.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve declined so much in Florida to the point that after the 2023 bleaching event, we lost more than 90% of all wild and restored colonies,\u201d Lirman said.<\/p>\n
Along with staghorn coral, elkhorn coral is one of the most important reef-building species in the Caribbean and Florida Keys. It creates essential habitat for countless marine species while helping protect coastlines from erosion and storm surge.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had such drastic declines in the abundance of this particular species to the point where they\u2019re now critically endangered and functionally extinct, which means they cannot recover by themselves if we don\u2019t take care of them and propagate them,\u201d Lirman said.<\/p>\n
Scientists acknowledge moving the corals comes with risks because the process is stressful for them. But leaving the remaining elkhorn genotypes in the ocean to bleach and die is not an option.<\/p>\n
So far, the rescue effort appears to be working.<\/p>\n
\u201cA week into this operation, I\u2019m happy to see that these corals are happy themselves. Their polyps are extended. They\u2019re feeding. They have good coloration. So the rescue operations were a success thus far,\u201d Lirman said.<\/p>\n
Scientists say rescue missions like this are not a long-term solution. As climate change continues to warm the ocean, coral reefs will keep disappearing unless meaningful action is taken to curb greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to act both locally, regionally, and globally to make sure that we slow down the impacts of climate change, so that we can give these last few survivors a chance to recover, and then use those survivors to restore our reefs,\u201d Lirman said.<\/p>\n
Scientists say coral bleaching may seem like an environmental issue, but it is also an economic one. Florida\u2019s reefs support billions of dollars in tourism, fishing and recreation while helping protect coastlines from storms.<\/p>\n
Even if you\u2019ve never gone diving, scientists say the health of Florida\u2019s reefs affects everyone.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ocean temperatures are climbing once again, and scientists fear Florida\u2019s coral reefs could be headed for another devastating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-357098","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\/357098","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=357098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}