The heat wave is leading to some incredibly hot water in the Florida Keys which is causing a massive coral bleaching event.
Scientists said water temperatures near 90 degrees are incredibly high for this time of year.
USF and the Florida Institute of Oceanography's Keys Marine Lab are working with many other partners to save as much coral as possible.
"We saw a massive bleaching in 2014 and 2015. It was all part of that big global El Nino event that so severely impacted the Great Barrier Reef and every other coral reef all around the world. And here we are, again, eight years later. Now we've had little mini bleaching or paneling events, nothing to this magnitude," Dr. Cynthia Lewis, Director of the Keys Marine Laboratory, said. "Usually, there's a little storm, a little bit of wind, something that stirs up the water, cools it down just enough so that we don't lose what we are trying to save. But we're down to less than 5% live coral covered here on our reefs, which is really scary. It's not sustainable, which is why restoration is so important for the future of these reefs."
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Coral bleaching can be devastating to our environment, but it doesn't mean the coral is dead yet.
"So corals are an animal, okay, and inside their tissue lives, this microscopic algae, and it's essentially a plant, and it uses sunshine to produce energy, and it can transfer that energy to the coral. So, in essence, it's able to feed the coral. And when the waters get too warm, the algae is expelled from the coral. And that's the it's the algae that gives it that golden brown color. But when it's expelled what all that's left is we're seeing if the coral is still alive, is just the translucent tissues that cover the coral skeleton. And we're seeing through the tissue into the coral skeleton and seeing that bright white color looks like you've dumped on a bucket of bleach on your jeans and it turns white, that's why we call it bleaching," explained Dr. Lewis.
Coral can reestablish their algae and can regain their color over time. However, the calm waters and intense heat are allowing UV radiation to also penetrate the water and sunburn the reef system. Many of the coral was already weak, and those fragile corals cannot survive.
Through these partnerships, scientists are able to take the coral to the nurseries. Once they are healed, they can be planted back into the reef.
The nurseries are temperature controlled, so they remain the perfect temperature for coral every day. While this will remain a temporary place for them to live, it may not be until September or October when they can go back to the ocean.
"They're so important because those guys are really the reef builders; they are the building blocks for our reefs. Importance of the reefs, not only economic, but also protection and, you know, just the first line of defense from storms, wave action, erosion, all those things that that they can actually reduce the wave energy before it hits the shoreline, whether it's in South Florida and the Florida Keys. Other than that, though, there are additionally the reefs are a huge economic importance to the reefs to the state of Florida, a multi-billion dollar industry that provides jobs, tourism, snorkeling, scuba diving, recreational fishing, as well as the incredibly important commercial fisheries and lobster fishery," said Dr. Lewis.
