KEY LARGO, Fla. (WSVN) — Concerns are mounting over the health of South Florida’s coral reefs as extreme heat continues to cause severe bleaching, putting these delicate ecosystems at risk. Researchers and organizations like the Coral Restoration Foundation are working tirelessly to save what remains of the once-thriving coral reefs off the Lower Keys.
At Sombrero Reef and Cheeca Rocks off the Lower Keys, the evidence of the crisis is hard to miss. Bailey Thomasson and Alex Neufeld from the Coral Restoration Foundation have witnessed the dire situation firsthand.
“Corals are screaming for our help,” said Thomasson. “Corals can really only stay bleached for a couple of weeks until they die.”
“This is the worst summer that I’ve seen,” Neufeld said.
The effects of rising sea temperatures have been devastating for the corals, leading to widespread bleaching, a phenomenon where corals expel the algae, their main food source, as a stress reaction to the hot temperatures. Without this vital symbiotic relationship, the corals lose their vibrant colors and become vulnerable to disease and death.
“To see them die right before our eyes is very heartbreaking,” said Thomasson.
In response to the coral bleaching crisis, organizations like the Coral Restoration Foundation have been conducting weekly dives to monitor the conditions of the reefs.
“It doesn’t look like it’s going to be getting any better, unfortunately,” said Neufeld. “Historically, August and September are the hottest months that we have down here.”
Recently, 7News was invited to tag along with researchers to witness the impact of the bleaching at Horseshoe Reef off Key Largo.
“Unfortunately, a lot of the wild corals that are on this reef are beginning to pale or, in some cases, bleach completely as well,” said Neufeld.
The race to rescue and restore the coral reefs has become an unprecedented effort, with researchers diving weekly to assess the damage and implement restoration initiatives. However, the challenges are immense, and the clock is ticking.
“Our team right now is in full triage mode,” Thomasson explained. “This means we’ve already gone to our nurseries and we’ve collected multiple individuals of every strain of coral that we work with and we’ve moved those corals to land-based facilities. Now we’re beginning phase two of our triage effort which is physically moving as much of our coral production stock into land-based facilities as we can.”
With the fate of South Florida’s coral reefs hanging in the balance, researchers and environmentalists hope their efforts will be enough to preserve and revitalize these precious marine habitats for future generations.
“We are literally seeing the extinction of an ecosystem in our lifetimes and we’ve never seen that before,” stated Neufeld.
Copyright 2025 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.