The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary formally welcomed its new leader for the first time at a Sanctuary Advisory Council (SAC) session on June 16.
John Armor, director of NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, introduced former SAC member and retired Army Corps of Engineers colonel Eddie Kertis Jr., citing his mix of environmental expertise, military leadership and local ties.
“(He has) years of experience managing big-dollar critical infrastructure programs with the Army Corps of Engineers, and then more recently local down here as a charter boat divemaster getting to integrate within the community here in the Florida Keys,” Armor said. “What a great combination of national-level, complex resource management and also a love and appreciation for this community we serve.”
A lifelong surfer, diver and environmental advocate, Kertis said his passion for conservation began in childhood and continued all the way through studies of biology at Stetson University, wetlands ecology and environmental engineering at the University of Florida, and a more recent associate’s degree in scuba diving from the College of the Florida Keys.
“I’ve been known to walk around the office for years saying ‘I’m trying to save the planet. I just need a little help,’” Kertis told the council.
Restoration Blueprint
The leadership change comes as the SAC continues to navigate the aftermath of the Restoration Blueprint veto by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, which split management between federal and state waters after Florida officials blocked implementation of the updated regulations closer to shore.
Armor said NOAA expects to formally codify the current regulatory framework soon in the Federal Register, maintaining Restoration Blueprint regulations in federal waters while older rules remain in place in state territory.
“We are also then going to be updating our website, our outreach materials, all the things that are going to help people understand what the new lay of the land is relative to the regulations and the management plan,” Armor said.
Council members requested simplified summaries of changes by region to help communicate them to the public. SAC chair Ben Daughtry agreed.
“The public will need that, so we have the ability to talk to our constituents,” Daughtry said. “We need a presentation even here in this room. … I’ve lived this for 14 years, and I’m sure it’s not clear for everybody at this table.”
Working group frustrations
Originally tasked with guiding more manageable a-la-carte regulation changes in the aftermath of the comprehensive Restoration Blueprint veto, the council’s Adaptive Management Working Group crafted a letter expressing frustrations with stalled progress in recent months.
The working group was created as a venue to address management concerns after years of debate over Restoration Blueprint as it crawled to its final form. Guided by an exercise at March’s SAC meeting, members had begun narrowing their focus to topics viewed as achievable first steps and “easy wins,” including buoy installs and maintenance and support for artificial habitat.
But a working group meeting scheduled for May was canceled amid government funding pauses and staff turmoil with the departure of former acting superintendent David Burke and the retirement of acting deputy superintendent Beth Dieveney.
“The vacant (positions) have resulted in a lack of support staff for this effort,” stated the letter, read by Daughtry to the council. “Although we understand these delays were unavoidable, all involved find our current situation quite discouraging and frustrating.”
“I agree with their letter, and I share their disappointment,” said Armor. “Obviously, I wish we could be having a different conversation right now. … We just have been really struggling with our staff.”
Armor called Kertis’ selection the “first sign of hope.”
“We’re starting to build back slowly,” he said. “It is frustratingly slow in terms of the rebuild, but it is a rebuild.”
Beating the heat
Sanctuary research coordinator Andy Bruckner said reef managers are cautiously optimistic that conditions in 2026 are not yet mirroring the catastrophic marine heat wave of 2023 that caused the worst coral bleaching on record in the Keys — but warning signs are already emerging.
“Fortunately, we’re not seeing the similar trends of the heat wave like we saw in Florida right now,” Bruckner said. “But what is unfortunate is that we are already under a bleaching warning. This is the second-earliest date in the history of NOAA’s coral watch program.”
Bruckner said some forecast models suggest the current El Niño could strengthen into a “super El Niño” — an event that, while also associated with lower hurricane occurrence and severity, is also tied to widespread bleaching in the Keys.
Despite the uncertainty, Bruckner said coral practitioners learned crucial lessons from 2023 that transformed restoration efforts – including a set of protocols released this February by the sanctuary and FWC for in-water nursery management, transport and outplanting of corals.
During the 2023 heat wave, scientists and restoration groups conducted what Bruckner called a “heroic” coral rescue, moving roughly 27,000 corals from ocean nurseries onto land — more than had ever been done anywhere else in the world.
The high survival rate of the rescued corals helped inform best husbandry practices while preserving a “valuable genetic stock,” he said. Since that year, Florida has expanded emergency response capacity, funding additional tanks and facilities capable of housing rescued corals during future heat events.
Researchers are also experimenting with new techniques to increase coral survival, including deeper-water nurseries, shading systems and inflatable floating “canopies” designed by University of Miami engineering students to protect corals from intense sunlight during heat waves. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has committed funding for 110 of the structures if ongoing trials prove successful.
“(Bleaching is) a relationship between temperature and light levels,” Bruckner said. “One of the things we’ve learned is that by reducing the amount of light, even if it’s really hot, these corals are much more likely to survive.”
Scientists are also establishing genetic “insurance policies” for corals. The goal, as described by Bruckner, is to establish representative fragments of every remaining known genetic strain of Florida’s coral species – “enough genetic diversity that we could in the future use those to restore the reefs.”
Other experiments involve combining the genetics of heat-resistant elkhorn corals from Honduras with Florida corals to produce “Flonduran” offspring. The new corals will soon be placed on Upper Keys reefs for the first time.
“They did a pile of experiments last year – they put a small number of these out off Miami on artificial substrates and another reef, and over the year they had 100% survival,” Bruckner said. “They look beautiful.”
