Coral Restoration Foundation SAVING FLORIDA'S REEFS, ONE CREATURE AT A TIME
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oral Restoration Foundation™ is on a mission to save the world. At least one just under the ocean's surface.
The Tavernier, Florida-based nonprofit cultivates huge numbers of corals in the world’s biggest offshore coral nurseries to restore our imperiled coral reefs, nature's underwater barriers and home to countless sea life. Reefs are also diver/snorkeler nirvana, bringing revenue to the trades nourished from that resource. But coral is in deep trouble, thanks to human pressure. Disasters such as a warming earth, disease outbreaks, overfishing, pollution, coastal development, and direct human impacts from anchors and careless visitors have killed, bleached or degraded much of the Florida Reef Tract, historic coral that stretches some 300 miles from the St. Lucie Inlet in Martin County on the east coast, to the Dry Tortugas in the Gulf of Mexico. Boats and anchoring had also caused reef losses.
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Just a handful of the world's barrier reefs are healthy. The Coral Triangle in the western Pacific Ocean is such a place, a diverse underwater universe teeming with wildlife. Still, current levels and methods of harvesting fish and other resources are “not sustainable and place this important marine area and its people in jeopardy,” according to the World Wildlife Fund, an advocacy group. Science classifies coral as animals attaching themselves to the ocean floor, taking root like plants. But since they must feed themselves, have tentacle arms and scoop food, they're animals. Coral Restoration Foundation™ raises huge numbers of genetically diverse corals on underwater “coral trees,” host devices that the organization invented, with the young coral colonies later transplanted to restore degraded reef sites where these species used to flourish. There are several such sites along the Florida Keys. Many of the genotypes that Coral Restoration Foundation™ works with are no longer found in the wild, where
THIS PAGE: PHOTO BY ZACH RANSOM/CORAL RESTORATION FOUNDATION™; OPPOSITE PAGE: PHOTO BY SARA NILSSON/CORAL RESTORATION FOUNDATION™
WRITTEN BY: JACK COLLIER
