Some hopeful news....the reefs declining because of bleaching......might get some help.

[a kennedy]

A taskforce of experts looking into the mass bleaching and decline of Florida’s delicate coral reefs is planting more than 1,000 nursery-grown juveniles from the reef-building elkhorn species in a new effort to reverse the tide of destruction.

Record ocean heat in 2023 hastened the death spiral for reefs in the Florida Keys, which have lost 90% of their healthy coral cover over the last 40 years, largely because of the climate emergency, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa).

Marine biologists from the Keys Marine Laboratory of the University of South Florida (USF) partnered with scientists from Tampa’s Florida Aquarium to develop a large-scale restoration project involving elkhorn coral, which is critically endangered but also one of the fastest-growing and most resilient species.

Earlier this month, the USF facility in Long Key, halfway along the ecologically fragile Florida Keys island chain, took delivery of 1,050 young elkhorn corals spawned between 2022 and 2023 at the aquarium’s conservation and research center in Apollo Beach.

The corals are acclimatizing in temperature-regulated seawater beds in Long Key. They will be distributed to research partners including the Coral Restoration Foundation, the Mote Marine Laboratory, Reef Renewal USA, and Sustainable Oceans and Reefs for planting at seven designated offshore sites around the Keys during the next two months.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/24/florida-coral-replanting-effort