The sea temperatures in Florida have risen to The month of August has seen some extraordinary heightsThis is a serious threat to the reef barrier.
“Hot water does not benefit any marine organism whether it is coral, fish, or lobster.” We run the risk of massive fish deaths, sea turtle deaths, and other things,” said Alex Neufeld. Project coordinator at the Coral Restoration Foundation.
Surface water temperatures rose above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32.2 degrees Celsius) several days earlier this month, and on Monday hit a record 101.1 °F in Manatee Bay, a sound near Key Largo.
Coral can routinely survive sea temperatures between 70 and 84 °F (21 to 28.8 °C).
“This is the worst I have ever seen. And I think many people would agree that… it has the potential to be the worst one that the Keys has ever experienced,” Neufeld said.
Neufeld’s non-profit group has collected coral samples from nurseries, in collaboration with local groups. “We have moved them to land-based facilities, where water parameters can controlled and they can be protected,” Neufeld said.
While scientists rush to save the reef-based marine life, Florida Keys business owners are concerned about the potential impact on tourism.
Brian Branigan is a 65-year old boat captain from Big Pine Key, near Key West. He rents out launches to tourists.
“What happened in the past two week is horrible, shocking.” When I was in water snorkeling and saw this, I felt like crying myself.
A reef of coral is turning white as a result of stress.
The coral reefs are bleaching faster this year and summer has only just reached its halfway point.
When corals are stressed, they expel the algae that live in symbiosis. These algae provide them with nutrients while also giving them color.
Damage to the reef can cause a lot of debris to fall on land.
“Very sad”
According to Florida’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration coral reefs create US$2 billion and 70,400 part-time and full-time jobs.
Brad Roberts, his wife and sons travelled from Fort Myers along the Florida Gulf Coast to Islamorada Keys to go lobster fishing.
What is happening is extremely sad. Many of these people depend on the reefs to make a living. “I don’t believe people will want come down to see dead coral,” Roberts added.
It is possible that sport fishermen, an important sector of tourism in the area, will change their mind.
Roberts, a company employee, said, “If you have four bad trips and one good trip and you come here, then you will probably want to spend the money you earn on tourism somewhere else.”
Branigan, who first learned to scuba-dive 48 years ago, relies heavily on sport fisherman and scuba enthusiasts to rent his boats.
He said, “We’re worried about the impact it will have on us personally and financially.” “I am sure that it will have a negative impact, and possibly even catastrophically.”
Neufeld and his colleagues continue to work on collecting coral samples from nurseries, while the business owners fret about their own survival.
“We’ve taken representatives from all of those corals and… we’ve actually moved them to physically different locations to further safeguard and build in a bit of redundancy for those critical species,” he said.
For two weeks now, groups like Coral Restoration Foundation have been collecting the samples to bring to land-based – less heated – tanks, he said.
Their mission is essential to protect the barrier reef – but also indirectly the humans living on shore.
The reefs protect us from hurricanes as well as storm surges and hurricanes.
