{"id":752242,"date":"2026-07-09T09:00:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T09:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/752242\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T09:00:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T09:00:27","slug":"reef-teams-race-to-save-florida-corals-amid-heat-wave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/752242\/","title":{"rendered":"Reef teams race to save Florida corals amid heat wave"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/p>\n

A partially bleached mound coral sits on the reef floor after a mass bleaching event in March 2023 at Cheeca Rocks Reef in Islamorada, Florida, on Thursday, October 5, 2023.<\/p>\n

D.A. Varela<\/p>\n

Miami Herald File<\/p>\n

The warning bells are ringing for another potentially killer season for Florida\u2019s beleaguered coral reefs, sending reef restoration companies scrambling to protect their brood.<\/p>\n

While the atmospheric phenomena of El Ni\u00f1o is linked to a quieter hurricane season this year, it\u2019s also cranking the thermostat on Florida\u2019s waters. That\u2019s bad news for corals, which get sick and even die when water temperatures stay too hot for too long.<\/p>\n

And as of this week, they\u2019re officially too hot. On Tuesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration marked the Keys at \u201cAlert Level 1\u201d for coral bleaching. It\u2019s now expected that at least some of the bumpy, rock-like organisms that make up Florida\u2019s reef will sicken and spit out the algae living within them that provide food and shade.<\/p>\n

Corals can survive, sunburned and starving, a few weeks without the algae and recover if temperatures cool down. But if temperatures rise too high, other corals simply die.<\/p>\n

In 2023, the waters near Florida were hotter than they\u2019d ever been in modern recorded history. It was devastating to Florida\u2019s reefs. It turned coral nurseries into graveyards<\/a> and may have been the tipping point for two species of coral now considered \u201cfunctionally extinct.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Two more Florida corals are \u2018functionally extinct\u2019 after 2023 heat wave<\/a><\/p>\n

Data collected by NOAA suggest that offshore water temperatures on the Florida reef are already matching 2023\u2019s record pace \u2014 or surpassing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlert level 1 really doesn\u2019t capture it. It\u2019s scary. It\u2019s extreme,\u201d said Ken Nedimyer, technical director for coral restoration group Reef Renewal USA. \u201cI think we\u2019re on track to be hotter than 2023.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The The black line shows how sea surface temperatures in 2026 are already tracking along the worst year in recent memory, 2023, in red, for coral mortality. NOAA <\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s alert sent reef restoration groups scrambling. The Coral Reef Foundation, another restoration group, moved 246 corals \u2014 all elkhorn and staghorn \u2014 to facilities on land.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have additional response tiers \u2014 including deeper-water and alternate holding locations \u2014 staged and ready to deploy if conditions require it,\u201d CRF Program Manager Phanor Montoya-Maya wrote in an email to the Miami Herald.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Nedimyer\u2019s team set out via boat to their nursery, where they raise baby corals, to move 400 elkhorn and staghorn corals to safety. Some of the corals will be moved to their deep water nursery and others will travel to land-based facilities in West Palm Beach and Tampa.<\/p>\n

Next week, Nedimyer said, they\u2019ll go back for another hundred or so of the bigger corals.<\/p>\n

But the plan is to leave the biggest ones \u2014 up to 45 inches across \u2014 in the water. That\u2019s because researchers expect them to spawn, or make babies, in the first week of August. If they can hold out that long. These corals are the same species researchers have declared \u201cfunctionally extinct\u201d in Florida.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re in the most trouble,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re right on the brink of extinction. They\u2019re hanging on by a thread.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dead Dead coral sits in a pile near Paradise Reef nursery during a Rescue A Reef coral restoration dive out of Diver\u2019s Paradise dive shop located at Crandon Marina in Key Biscayne, Florida, on Aug. 4, 2023. D.A. Varela Miami Herald File <\/p>\n

Reef Restoration plans to scoop up the coral spawn and bring it into the cooler, safer waters of their lab tanks, where they\u2019ll ideally grow into full-fledged corals that can then be replanted along the reef.<\/p>\n

Nedimyer said he saw fully bleached corals continue to spawn in 2023, which gives scientists hope that they could get at least one more generation from these corals \u2014 even if the waters get hot tub hot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis could be the last gasp. No matter what we do we could end up losing a lot of them,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re doing everything we can. We\u2019re trying to hedge our bets as much as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montoya-Maya, with Coral Reef Foundation, said the 2023 bleaching event taught restoration groups hard lessons, but it helped them prepare for heat waves like this one.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite significant losses, CRF\u2019s 17 years of restoration experience allowed us to save more than 17,000 coral colonies across 23 species,\u201d he wrote. \u201cWe\u2019re watching conditions closely, and we\u2019re better positioned this year because of what 2023 taught us.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published July 8, 2026 at 5:00 AM.<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Alex Harris is the lead climate change reporter for the Miami Herald\u2019s climate team, which covers how South Florida communities are adapting to the warming world. Her beat also includes environmental issues and hurricanes. She attended the University of Florida.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A partially bleached mound coral sits on the reef floor after a mass bleaching event in March 2023…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-752242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}