Battered By Bleaching, Florida's Coral Reefs Now Face Mysterious Disease 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission 
 
 At Mote Marine Lab's Center for Coral Reef Research and Restoration in the Florida Keys, Joey Mandara is like a baby sitter. But instead of children he tends to thousands of baby corals, growing in large, shallow tanks called raceways. 
 
 Mote has been doing this work for five years, raising corals from embryos into adult colonies, then planting them on Florida's reefs. Now, the emergence of a new, debilitating coral disease makes his work more important than ever. 
 
 In one raceway, Mandara says fragments of brain coral have grown quickly in this controlled environment. 
 
 "The brain coral were eight fragments," he says. "And over time, they've grown out and have now fused into each other, becoming one coral that will hopefully over time become sexually mature." 
 
 Mote lab's science director Erinn Muller calls such progress "our beacon of hope." 
 
 Around the world, coral reefs are facing trouble. Coral bleaching, due in part to rising ocean temperatures, has stressed reefs, leaving them weakened and susceptible to disease. Now, in Florida, scientists are struggling to combat a mysterious disease that's threatening the future of the world's third largest coral reef. 
 
 In just four years, the so-far unidentified disease has already had a dramatic impact on Florida's reef tract, which extends some 360 miles down the state's Atlantic coast. Muller says it appears to be a bacterial disease, and for about half of the state's species of coral it's deadly. 
 
 "When they're affected by this, the tissue sloughs off the skeleton," she says. "And we see that once a coral is infected, it usually kills the entire coral, sometimes within weeks. And it doesn't seem to stop." 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Greg Allen/NPR Greg Allen/NPR 
 
 A 'local extinction' that's on the move 
 
 William Precht was one of the first scientists to spot the outbreak and the impact it was having on corals. In 2014, he was hired by the state to monitor the health of reefs off the port of Miami, where a dredging project was underway. He saw the disease move from one patch of coral to another. 
 
 Precht says it's proved especially deadly for species of brain and star coral, which form the foundation for many reefs. In some areas now, he says almost all of those corals are dead. 
 
 "This is essentially equivalent to a local extinction, an ecological extirpation of these species locally," he says. "And when you go out and swim on the reefs of Miami-Dade County today, it would be a very rare chance encounter that you'd see some of these three or four species." 
 
 Scientists believe ocean currents help spread the disease. Since it was first discovered, it's moved north, affecting reefs all the way up to the St. Lucie inlet. It's now moving south, through the Florida Keys. 
 
 A large number of researchers are working to tackle the disease on many fronts. Some are using DNA analysis to try to identify the pathogens involved. Muller of Mote Marine says others are looking for ways to stop the disease from spreading. 
 
 "Anything from... looking at chlorine-laced epoxy as an antiseptic, and even looking at how antibiotics interact with the disease," she says. "Because if it is bacterial, then antibiotics would be a way to stop it." 
 
 This disease outbreak is the latest blow to a reef system that has been stressed and battered by decades of development, poor water quality and rising sea temperatures. After a long decline in Florida, coral reefs have been decimated, leaving too few species to successfully reproduce and rebuild the population on their own. 
 
 That's why Muller believes the best hope now is to raise healthy corals in the lab and transplant them onto reefs. "We're really at a critical juncture right now, where we have corals left on the reef," she says. "Before we lose more corals, now is the time to start making a change." 
 
 Mote Marine Lab hopes to plant 35,000 of its lab-raised corals onto reefs in the Keys this year. Muller says so far, corals raised in the lab have shown resistance to the mystery disease, giving scientists hope they may yet be able to save Florida's reefs. ||||| Coral Disease Outbreak Across Florida Reef Tract 
 
 (2014-present) 
 
 
 
 
 
 Florida’s coral reefs are experiencing a multi-year outbreak of coral disease. While disease outbreaks are not unprecedented, this event is unique due to the number of coral species affected across a large portion of the Florida Reef Tract, and the ongoing nature of the event. The disease outbreak is highly prevalent and is estimated to have resulted in the mortality of millions of corals. In fall 2014, isolated sites with significant coral disease were reported near Key Biscayne in Miami-Dade County by DEP’s Coral Reef Conservation Program staff as well as local scientists. By fall 2015, widespread disease was confirmed across approximately 55 linear miles of reef, including locations as far north as Pompano Beach in Broward County and as far south as Biscayne National Park with a few isolated reports in Palm Beach County. Disease continued to spread north and south into the Florida Keys throughout 2016, and by summer of 2017 reports of widespread disease were confirmed as far north as St. Lucie Inlet in Martin County and to the southern boundary of the upper Keys. In 2018 the disease front reached Looe Key, in the lower Keys (Figure 1). 
 
 
 
 
 
 For a general FAQ involving the disease outbreak, please click here . 
 
 For a summarization of the disease and response efforts click here . 
 
 
 
 
 
 Response Efforts 
 
 Since 2015, DEP and numerous partners from federal, state and local governments, universities, nongovernmental organizations and the South Florida community have been communicating regularly and working together on a multifaceted response effort to: 
 
 Document the distribution, prevalence, severity and impacts associated with the disease outbreak; 
 
 Identify likely pathogens; 
 
 Understand potentially contributory environmental factors; 
 
 Experiment with treatments and other interventions; 
 
 Seek additional capacity and funding to support more comprehensive response efforts; and 
 
 Facilitating stakeholder assistance by creating a region-wide Reef Ambassador program and maintaining SEAFAN and C-OCEAN citizen science programs. 
 
 The exact cause and contributing factors for this event will likely take years to identify; however, addressing other known coral stressors (i.e., water quality, turbidity and sedimentation, etc.) will increase the ability of the corals to recover. For information on how you can help the corals recover, check out our Coral Reef Ambassador Initiative page! 
 
 
 
 
 
 Regional Coordination Calls 
 
 To improve communication about the status of the coral disease outbreak and coordination among reef managers, scientists and interested members of the community regarding these response efforts, DEP initiated coordination phone calls in summer 2015. Although initially focused on mainland southeast Florida where the disease outbreak originated, these coordination calls were re-established during summer 2016 to include the entire Florida Reef Tract and are currently ongoing. Follow the links below to review a meeting summary from any of these calls: 
 
 Regional Southeast Florida Calls: 
 
 Florida Reef Tract-Wide Calls: 
 
 
 
 
 
 Completed Projects 
 
 
 
 
 
 Disease Workshop (July 24-25, 2017) 
 
 DEP’s Florida Coastal Office staff partnered with coral disease experts Great Aeby from the University of Hawaii and Blake Ushijima from Oregon State University to deliver a two-day coral disease workshop. Approximately 125 participants representing a variety of agencies, organizations, universities and the South Florida community attended. The workshop included information on coral disease identification, ecology and investigation techniques. To review the workshop material and recordings, please follow the links below: 
 
 For 508-Compliant versions, please email Kristi.Kerrigan@dep.state.fl.us. 
 
 Disease Planning Workshops (November 6-8, 2017) 
 
 DEP’s Florida Coastal Office Southeast Region collaborated with staff from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to lead a three-day coral disease workshop to discuss the next phase of coral disease response efforts. Made possible by funds appropriated by the Florida Legislature and Governor Scott, the workshop was attended by approximately 40 participants, including leading coral disease scientists and animal health experts. To review the summaries and objectives from these workshops, please see below and click on the following links: 
 
 Intervention Methodologies Workshop: November 6, 2017 
 
 Objectives: (1) Discuss coral disease intervention and treatment methodologies, and identify the constraints that may limit them from application. (2) Collaborate with animal health experts regarding additional data needs or other strategies to proceed with interventions within the current regulatory framework. 
 
 Priority Sampling Plan Workshop: November 7-8, 2017 
 
 Objectives: (1) Create a Florida Reef Tract-wide coral disease priority sampling plan, to include both single event biological collections and fixed station assessment. (2) Develop a plan for how existing and future samples should be analyzed across all disciplines and identify labs/personnel with the expertise to complete those analyses. 
 
 Have you observed coral disease on the Florida Reef Tract? 
 
 Report coral disease observations anywhere in Florida to SEAFAN: 
 
 In-house graphic-Southeast Florida Submit report button.jpg 
 
 If you want to learn more about this coral disease outbreak, please follow this link for a full detailed summary. ||||| The Great Barrier Reef of Australia passed away in ... after a long illness. It was 25 million years old. 
 
 For most of its life, the reef was the world’s largest living structure, and the only one visible from space. It was 1,400 miles long, with 2,900 individual reefs and 1,050 islands. In total area, it was larger than the United Kingdom, and it contained more biodiversity than all of Europe combined. It harbored 1,625 species of fish, 3,000 species of mollusk, 450 species of coral, 220 species of birds, and 30 species of whales and dolphins. Among its many other achievements, the reef was home to one of the world’s largest populations of dugong and the largest breeding ground of green turtles. 
 
 The reef was born on the eastern coast of the continent of Australia during the Miocene epoch. Its first 24.99 million years were seemingly happy ones, marked by overall growth. It was formed by corals, which are tiny anemone-like animals that secrete shell to form colonies of millions of individuals. Its complex, sheltered structure came to comprise the most important habitat in the ocean. As sea levels rose and fell through the ages, the reef built itself into a vast labyrinth of shallow-water reefs and atolls extending 140 miles off the Australian coast and ending in an outer wall that plunged half a mile into the abyss. With such extraordinary diversity of life and landscape, it provided some of the most thrilling marine adventures on earth to humans who visited. Its otherworldly colors and patterns will be sorely missed. 
 
 To say the reef was an extremely active member of its community is an understatement. The surrounding ecological community wouldn’t have existed without it. Its generous spirit was immediately evident 60,000 years ago, when the first humans reached Australia from Asia during a time of much lower sea levels. At that time, the upper portions of the reef comprised limestone cliffs and innumerable caves lining a resource-rich coast. Charlie Veron, longtime chief scientist for the Australian Institute of Marine Science and the Great Barrier Reef’s most passionate champion (he personally discovered 20 percent of the world’s coral species), called the reef in that era a “Stone Age Utopia.” Aboriginal clans hunted and fished its waters and cays for millennia, and continued to do so right up to its demise. 
 
 Worldwide fame touched the reef in 1770, when Captain James Cook became the first European to navigate its deadly maze. Although the reef was beloved by nearly all who knew it, Cook was not a fan. “The sea in all parts conceals shoals that suddenly project from the shore, and rocks that rise abruptly like a pyramid from the bottom,” he wrote in his journal. Cook’s ship foundered on one of those shoals and was nearly sunk, but after several months Cook escaped the reef. 
 
 After that, the reef was rarely out of the spotlight. A beacon for explorers, scientists, artists, and tourists, it became Australia’s crown jewel. Yet that didn’t stop the Queensland government from attempting to lease nearly the entire reef to oil and mining companies in the 1960s—a move that gave birth to Australia’s first conservation movement and a decade-long “Save the Reef” campaign that culminated in the 1975 creation of Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, which restricted fishing, shipping, and development in the reef and seemed to ensure its survival. In his 2008 book, A Reef in Time, Veron wrote that back then he might have ended his book about the reef with “a heartwarming bromide: ‘And now we can rest assured that future generations will treasure this great wilderness area for all time.’” But, he continued: “Today, as we are coming to grips with the influence that humans are having on the world’s environments, it will come as no surprise that I am unable to write anything remotely like that ending.” 
 
 In 1981, the same year that UNESCO designated the reef a World Heritage Site and called it “the most impressive marine area in the world,” it experienced its first mass-bleaching incident. Corals derive their astonishing colors, and much of their nourishment, from symbiotic algae that live on their surfaces. The algae photosynthesize and make sugars, which the corals feed on. But when temperatures rise too high, the algae produce too much oxygen, which is toxic in high concentrations, and the corals must eject their algae to survive. Without the algae, the corals turn bone white and begin to starve. If water temperatures soon return to normal, the corals can recruit new algae and recover, but if not, they will die in months. In 1981, water temperatures soared, two-thirds of the coral in the inner portions of the reef bleached, and scientists began to suspect that climate change threatened coral reefs in ways that no marine park could prevent. 
 
 By the turn of the millennium, mass bleachings were common. The winter of 1997–98 brought the next big one, followed by an even more severe one in 2001–02, and another whopper in 2005–06. By then, it was apparent that warming water was not the only threat brought by climate change. As the oceans absorbed more carbon from the atmosphere, they became more acidic, and that acid was beginning to dissolve the living reef itself. 
 
 Concerned for the reef’s health, a number of friends attempted interventions—none more poignant than Veron’s famed 2009 speech to London’s 350-year-old Royal Society titled “Is the Great Barrier Reef on Death Row?” Veron quickly answered his own question in the affirmative: “This is not a fun talk to give, but I’ve never given a more important talk in my life,” he told the premier gathering of scientists, accurately predicting that atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations of 450 parts per million (which the world reached in 2025) would bring about the demise of the reef. 
 
 No one knows if a serious effort could have saved the reef, but it is clear that no such effort was made. On the contrary, attempts to call attention to the reef’s plight were thwarted by the government of Australia itself, which in 2016, shortly after approving the largest coal mine in its history, successfully pressured the United Nations to remove a chapter about the reef from a report on the impact of climate change on World Heritage sites. Australia’s Department of the Environment explained the move by saying, “experience had shown that negative comments about the status of World Heritage-listed properties impacted on tourism.” In other words, if you tell people the reef is dying, they might stop coming. 
 
 By then, the reef was in the midst of the most catastrophic bleaching event in its history, from which it would never recover. As much as 50 percent of the coral in the warmer, northern part of the reef died. “The whole northern section is trashed,” Veron told Australia’s Saturday Paper. “It looks like a war zone. It’s heartbreaking.” With no force on earth capable of preventing the oceans from continuing to warm and acidify for centuries to come, Veron had no illusions about the future. “I used to have the best job in the world. Now it’s turned sour... I’m 71 years old now, and I think I may outlive the reef.” 
 
 The Great Barrier Reef was predeceased by the South Pacific’s Coral Triangle, the Florida Reef off the Florida Keys, and most other coral reefs on earth. It is survived by the remnants of the Belize Barrier Reef and some deepwater corals. 
 
 In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Ocean Ark Alliance.
– Something is turning healthy coral into ghostly skeletons along the Florida Reef Tract. As the third-largest barrier reef in the world, the 360-mile stretch of vitally important sea life provides a buffet of nutrients for plants and animals along the state's Atlantic coast. Now, scientists are racing to find a cure, as detailed in a piece by NPR. To be sure, reefs are struggling worldwide, and coral diseases have been rising over the last decade, per NOAA, probably caused by pollution and rising ocean temperatures, which provide a warm home for pathogens. But growing swathes of coral from as far north as Pompano Beach in Broward County to as far south as Biscayne National Park are turning into watery graveyards, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection says in a report. Since 2015 the department has been working with a team of federal, state, and local groups to identify the likely pathogen, find a treatment, and address underlying problems—but that identification hasn't yet happened. Scientist William Precht, who was hired by the state to monitor the health of reefs off the port of Miami, has watched the disease move from one patch of coral to another. He says that whatever is killing the coral is especially deadly for brain and star coral, which create the underlying structure for many reefs. The death of the coral, he tells NPR, is having a lasting impact. "When you go out and swim on the reefs of Miami-Dade County today, it would be a very rare chance encounter that you'd see some of these three or four species." (There's bad news about the Great Barrier Reef, too.)