It grows out and up towards the light, reaching to the surface like a hundred-fingered hand. Its brown-green branches start nestled close to the white sand and spread across the ocean floor forming a forest of coral and an ideal home for a diverse array of sea life.
The slender antler-shaped limbs and broad mature boughs belong to the staghorn and elkhorn corals, native to Florida and the Caribbean, and are the only corals under the protection of the Federal Endangered Species Act.
Scientists are screaming for a recovery plan to save the threatened species as over 95 percent of the staghorn and elkhorn population have been replaced with a barren, empty sea floor due to the effects of global warming.
Acropora palmata, elkhorn, and Acropora cervicornis, staghorn, are communal, stone-hard coral species whose range spreads as far north as Palm Beach County, throughout the Florida Keys and the Caribbean, and as far south as coastal Brazil, according to the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (NMS). Living inside of the calcium-based skeleton of the coral is symbiotic algae, multicellular organisms that, in return for shelter and sunlight, produce food for the colony.
Acropora is a delicate species requiring a refined balance of warm, clear salt water and sunlight for the algae tissue inside to live. If missing any of these key ingredients, the fragile coral system can not survive.
According to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in the 1970s, the reef building species was one of the most abundant types of coral in tropical waters and most critical for reef building habitats. Their abstract antler shapes and high growth rate offer an essential habitat for a multitude of fish and other reef animals that no other coral species is able to provide, increasing the diversity of wildlife in the ocean and attracting thousands of divers to the third largest barrier reef in the world that runs along South Florida’s coastline.
“The reefs along the [Florida] Keys are what made me want to study marine biology,” recent FAU marine science graduate Marc Seramur says. “There was so much going on, so much life just miles off shore that most people aren’t even aware of.”
The coral reefs also form natural stoney barriers lining the coast and encircling islands, protecting them from the storms that frequently visit the area, while simultaneously supporting the fishing, scuba diving, boating and recreational activities in the tropical waters.
An index finger-sized branch of staghorn coral can grow into a colony the size of a basketball in about two years, and the size of a large beach ball in five.
So what or who is responsible for killing one of the most crucial species in our irreplaceable coral reef system? We all are.
We are burning fossil fuels at an incredible rate, expelling immense amounts of greenhouse gases.These gases have an undeniable effect on the world around us, heating the earth, raising the oceanic temperature and causing stress on the coral.
We are building and developing coastal areas frivolously, increasing runoff that clouds clear, tropical water and blankets coral’s porous limbs. The sediment blocks the precious sunlight coral needs to produce energy.
The ejection of treated sewage from off-shore pipes into the ocean is producing severe levels of pollution, spawning sticky, wispy algae blooms and causing stress on the coral.
The warmer waters and other significant stressors cause the symbiotic algae tissue inside to leave the colony, turning dull white and causing the coral to look bleached.
“When the coral is stressed, something is thrown out of whack,” says diver and researcher for Nova University’s Oceanographic Center Alison Moulding. “The coral depends on the algae, they work together. When the algae doesn’t like what is going on, whether it’s pollution or increased water temperature, they are out of there,” she says.
When the symbiotic algae leave the coral due to a stressor, it loses its muddy, greenish-brown color, turning stark white.
The bleaching leaves the defenseless coral in critical condition. With no internal tissue structure, the skeleton is vulnerable to the ferocious storms that ravage the coastline. The strong waves and currents of tropical storms rip the limbs from their bases and decimate entire colonies of coral, leaving bare cemeteries of former reef habitats and displacing the extensive ecosystem surrounding it.
According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, after being placed under the protection of the Endangered Species Act, NOAA is required to develop a recovery plan for the two coral species within a year of placement on the list. In the meantime, localized recovery efforts have been taking place looking for an answer to the demise of the species.
The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary has implemented a zoning project which has sectioned off segments of the sanctuary for protection and observation. The zones are set up to “protect the sensitive marine resources from overuse and to separate conflicting visitor uses,” according to the NMS. The size and relative condition of hard coral species, sponges and bare space were recorded. With a timeline of five years, researchers are collecting data on the various algae occurrences, species diversity and hard coral colony abundance throughout the zones.
The Sanctuary’s zoning program will be evaluated at the end of the five year period and the effectiveness will be determined and modified according to the data found. According to the NMS, “The zones allow resources to evolve in a natural state with minimum human interference”.
The zoning project is especially educational while it allows the researchers to observe the controlled, natural environment of the zones in contrast with the water quality and habitat degradation taking place in the larger unzoned and unmonitored areas.
With the year deadline placed on NOAA to produce a recovery plan for the staghorn and elkhorn coral in the near future, scientists and environmentalists alike are looking forward to a strategy for revival that will bring the reef community back to a healthy state.
“I can’t imagine what these reefs will look like in 10 or 20 years if we keep ravaging the coast the way we are. I hope my children will have a chance to see the same things I’ve seen,” Seramur says.
