As summer continues to blaze on, it’s getting hotter and weirder. After last year’s coral calamities, the Florida Keys scientific and restoration community is again bracing for the heat.
This year, they’re more prepared.
“Last year we were caught a bit by surprise and had to react quickly,” said Mission: Iconic Reefs (MIR) co-lead Jennifer Moore. “But we learned a great deal and are much more prepared this year. Our program is simultaneously a restoration project and a research project. From the beginning, our intention was to create new knowledge and put it into practice in the field.”
In mid-July 2023, amid an intense marine heat wave, people began reporting signs of distress and death in various marine species. Many corals bleached and died. The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS) and coral practitioners throughout the Keys launched emergency efforts to move corals from nurseries in the ocean to deeper waters and/or holding tanks at Florida Institute of Oceanography’s Keys Marine Laboratory (KML) in Layton.
MIR partner Reef Renewal USA found that temporary deep water nurseries kept twice as many corals alive compared to inshore, shallow sites. On shore, KML’s 60 seawater tanks served as a triage station for more than 5,000 corals until it was safe for them to return to the waters in fall 2023. Both solutions proved vital to salvage efforts.
This year, NOAA already confirmed a fourth global coral bleaching event in April, and Keys coral caretakers are preparing.
In late June, the government agency took emergency steps to facilitate moving corals deeper in the ocean – should the need arise again. Building off Reef Renewal’s 2023 success, NOAA proposed three emergency nursery sites throughout the Keys.
To fund installation of the anchors for these zones, FKNMS turned to the community. Marine Preservation Society of the Florida Keys (MPS) and the Ocean Reef Conservation Association stepped up to meet the challenge.
“The collaborative funding demonstrates just how much the local community cares and can work towards solving our complex challenges,” said MPS vice chairman Kurt Tidd.
On land, KML has similarly been preparing since last year’s corals left the building for this year’s heat.
“Last year, we definitely needed more landside capacity for the corals. Restoration groups were forced to crowd seawater tables in an effort to remove as many genotypes as possible from their offshore nurseries during the bleaching event,” said Emily Becker, senior biological scientist and seawater systems manager.
Every possible table that could house corals was full. In response and in preparation, KML is expanding its seawater system capacity, securing money to build a fourth system with an additional 20 to 24 seawater tables. The buildout will start this summer and is expected to be completed by the end of 2025.
For this summer, KML hosted a preparation and orientation workshop for all restoration partners. Becker reviewed many lessons from last year’s heat emergency:
- Regulatory agencies need a well-articulated emergency management plan.
- Trigger points and criteria need to be defined, as well as what actions follow (genetic banking, moving select trees to deeper water, evacuating selected critical corals to land-based facilities).
- Have permits in place and sites prepped.
- React before corals are severely stressed.
- Don’t overload land-based tables.
KML has already purchased support supplies ahead of bleach events, so it can stand at the ready. This includes everything from coral food to improved tank pumps to algae-eating animals for the tanks.
“All of these items were purchased based on what we learned we needed after last year’s bleaching event,” Becker said.
KML also added remote alarm systems into all its seawater tables to detect temperature spikes and water flow interruptions. It also installed a new backup generator capable of powering the entire KML property, including all seawater systems, for seven to 10 days. These backups and alarms increase KML’s ability to serve as a safe haven for corals, said KML director and coral biologist Cynthia Lewis.
Finally, it is actively seeking funding for its regional oceanographic center in the Keys, a new multipurpose facility to serve the academic, research and restoration communities in the decades to come, Lewis said.
“Since the rescue of 2023, every effort has been made to prepare for a 2024 marine heating event,” said MPS volunteer director Sara Rankin. “Our coral practitioners should be lauded for collaboration and cooperation.”
iBut she added, “Moving corals to deep water or to land based facilities for the summer is not a long-term solution. They are a short-term solution to preserve genetic lines from extinction. The bigger question we ask is what is the long-term plan for the corals and the various restoration programs.”
