New Delhi: Scientists in Florida are scrambling to avert another mass die-off of coral reefs. The worry was triggered after the sea began to warm unusually again. This was a reminder of the devastating 2023 marine heat wave, resulting in the worst mass coral bleaching ever recorded in the state.
Bleached coral is weak, starving and can die if water conditions do not improve. That’s when scientists rolled up their sleeves and kicked in to move dozens of vulnerable elkhorn and staghorn corals from “offshore nurseries into deeper, cooler water.”
“It was like Noah’s ark. Keeping them (coral reefs) alive is our main focus right now,” Ken Nedimyer, technical director for the nonprofit Reef Renewal USA, told The Washington Post.
Not just that, the scientists also took other specimens to onshore labs. In these labs, the corals were kept in temperature-controlled systems until ocean temperatures were safe to return.
But this race to save coral reefs is not new. In 2023, young scuba divers plunged into the waters of Alligator Reef to help corals struggling to survive an extraordinary marine heat wave.
Inside the water, they scraped away the harmful algae and predators from the corals. They further collected corals from ocean nurseries along the Florida Keys reef tract and moved them to cooler waters, giving them a chance at survival.
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Calm before the storm
The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has warned that an extremely powerful El Niño — seen as the strongest one in the last 150 years — is warming up the ocean waters. NOAA has also issued Alert Level 2, meaning several heat-sensitive corals could also die.
Director of the Florida Institute of Oceanography’s Keys Marine Laboratory has described the situation as “calm before the storm.”
“The temperatures we are seeing right now basically mimicking what we saw at this same time in 2023,” Cynthia Lewis told The Washington Post.
And the memory of 2023 is registered as “traumatic” and “horrible”, said Lewis, who works on coral conservation.
A report published by NOAA last year revealed that the marine heatwave in 2023 triggered the “functional extinction of two coral species in Florida waters — elkhorn and staghorn — corals.”
The study found that around the Florida Keys and Dry Tortugas, 98 per cent to 100 per cent of the elkhorn and staghorn colonies died. Along southeastern Florida, where cooler sea temperatures were found, mortality was lower — nearly 38 per cent.”
The death of coral reefs – among the most important ecosystems in the marine world – would be a devastating blow to an already deepening environmental crisis.
(Edited by Saptak Datta)