Published TUESDAY November 10 2026: 'CORAL CRISIS: Saving Florida's Reef System' Photography by ZUMA Partner newspaper The Miami Herald-TNS photo-journalist D.A. Varela: For 10000 years towering elkhorn and staghorn corals formed the living architecture of Florida's coast sheltering marine life and buffering shorelines from storms. Today after four decades of pollution disease and warming seas the reef has lost nearly 90% of its live coral cover. Following a historic marine heatwave in the summer of 2023 when local water temperatures surged past 90 degrees F for the first time in 150 years up to 100% of colonies in the southern reef perished leaving these foundational species functionally extinct in the wild. Now racing against a rapidly warming ocean marine scientists have launched one of the world's most ambitious ecological rescue missions. Moving beyond traditional underwater replanting researchers are pulling surviving corals from the sea into climate-controlled land-based ''arks'' using selective breeding to engineer heat-tolerant super-corals and deploying massive artificial reef structures to rebuild a vanishing underwater world from the ground up. Welcome to 'CORAL CRISIS: Saving Florida's Reef System'
© zReportage.com Issue #1063 Story of the Week: Published TUESDAY November 10 2026: 'CORAL CRISIS: Saving Florida's Reef System' Photography by ZUMA Partner newspaper The Miami Herald-TNS photo-journalist D.A. Varela: For 10000 years towering elkhorn and staghorn corals formed the living architecture of Florida's coast sheltering marine life and buffering shorelines from storms. Today after four decades of pollution disease and warming seas the reef has lost nearly 90% of its live coral cover. Following a historic marine heatwave in the summer of 2023 when local water temperatures surged past 90 degrees F for the first time in 150 years up to 100% of colonies in the southern reef perished leaving these foundational species functionally extinct in the wild. Now racing against a rapidly warming ocean marine scientists have launched one of the world's most ambitious ecological rescue missions. Moving beyond traditional underwater replanting researchers are pulling surviving corals from the sea into climate-controlled land-based ''arks'' using selective breeding to engineer heat-tolerant super-corals and deploying massive artificial reef structures to rebuild a vanishing underwater world from the ground up. Welcome to 'CORAL CRISIS: Saving Florida's Reef System'

At Coralpalooza, the 10th-anniversary event honoring World Ocean Day and World Reef Awareness Day, SCUBA-certified divers get hands-on restoration opportunities and snorkelers explore the broader context of coral reef conservation. Following a historic marine heatwave in the summer of 2023 when local water temperatures surged past 90'F for the first time in 150 years, up to 100% of colonies in the southern reef perished, leaving these foundational species functionally extinct in the wild.
© D.A. Varela/Miami Herald via ZUMA Press Wire

Volunteer divers and Rosenstiel School scientists collect healthy coral from the Paradise Reef nursery be planted on an adjacent reef off the coast of Key Biscayne. Racing against a rapidly warming ocean, marine scientists have launched one of the world's most ambitious ecological rescue missions.
© D.A. Varela/Miami Herald via ZUMA Press Wire

Disposed of dead coral sit in a pile near Paradise Reef nursery during a Rescue A Reef coral restoration dive out of Divers Paradise dive shop in Key Biscayne. To save Florida's Coral Reef from rising ocean temperatures and disease, scientists, government agencies, and nonprofits have launched one of the largest marine restoration efforts in the world.
© D.A. Varela/MIAMI HERALD via ZUMA Press Wire

University of Miami Rosenstiel School scientists search Paradise Reef for evidence of coral bleaching off the coast of Key Biscayne. To save Florida's Coral Reef from rising ocean temperatures and disease, scientists, government agencies, and nonprofits have launched one of the largest marine restoration efforts in the world.
© D.A. Varela/Miami Herald via ZUMA Press Wire

University of Miami Rosenstiel School Senior Research Associate DALTON HESLEY collects healthy coral from the Paradise Reef nursery be outplanted on an adjacent reef during a Rescue A Reef coral restoration dive out of Diver's Paradise dive shop in Key Biscayne, Florida.
© D.A. Varela/Miami Herald via ZUMA Press Wire

DIEGO LIRMAN, an associate professor at the Department of Marine Biology and Ecology, holds a staghorn coral at the Reef Restoration Lab at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science in Virginia Key. The remaining wild colonies are scattered too thinly to build reef structures, shield coastlines from storms, or provide habitat for marine life.
© M. J. Ocner//Miami Herald/TNS via ZUMA Press Wire

Volunteers snip off fragments from corals hanging on a ''coral tree'' in a nursery near Paradise Reef, two miles off the coast of Key Biscayne. Following a historic marine heatwave in the summer of 2023 when local water temperatures surged past 90'F for the first time in 150 years, up to 100% of colonies in the southern reef perished, leaving these foundational species functionally extinct in the wild.
© D.A. Varela/Miami Herald via ZUMA Press Wire

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission associate research scientist GABRIEL DELGADO scuba dives as he rehomes Queen Conchs to deeper waters where the snails have a higher chance of successfully mating, during a dive with Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). The Queen Conch (Aliger gigas) and the Florida Horse Conch face severe environmental and population challenges in Florida, leading to federal protection status.
© D.A. Varela/Miami Herald via ZUMA Press Wire

Volunteer diver ZACHARY RUBIN, 34, outplants a staghorn coral on Paradise Reef during a Rescue A Reef coral restoration dive out of Diver's Paradise dive shop in Key Biscayne. Rosenstiel School scientists are working to establish a new restoration research site off Miami to identify and better understand the heat tolerance of certain coral species and genotypes during bleaching events like this.
© D.A. Varela/Miami Herald via ZUMA Press Wire

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission associate research scientist GABRIEL DELGADO holds a Queen Conch during a dive with Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). Staff and volunteers collected onshore specimen to be moved to an offshore location for a higher chance of successfully reproducing. The Queen Conch (Aliger gigas) and the Florida Horse Conch face severe environmental and population challenges, leading to federal protection status.
© D.A. Varela/Miami Herald via ZUMA Press Wire

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission associate research scientist Dr. ELLERY LENNON holds a Queen Conch after a dive with Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). In the Florida Keys, the adult queen conch population plummeted from roughly 700,000 prior to Hurricane Irma (2017) down to an estimated 126,000 by 2022 due to severe storms and thermal stress.
© D.A. Varela/Miami Herald via ZUMA Press Wire

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission associate research scientist Dr. ELLERY LENNON measures the total length of a Queen Conch before relocating it to deeper waters where the snail has a higher chance of successfully mating, after a dive with FWC in Miami. The Queen Conch (Aliger gigas) and the Florida Horse Conch face severe environmental and population challenges in Florida, leading to federal protection status.
© D.A. Varela/Miami Herald via ZUMA Press Wire

Coral 'cookie's' sit on the deck before being outplanted at Paradise Reef during a Rescue A Reef coral restoration dive out of Diver's Paradise dive shop in Key Biscayne. Rosenstiel School scientists are working to establish a new restoration research site off Miami to identify and better understand the heat tolerance of certain coral species and genotypes during bleaching events like this.
© D.A. Varela/Miami Herald via ZUMA Press Wire

A cement base holds coral fragments planted at Paradise Reef during a Rescue A Reef coral restoration dive off the coast of Key Biscayne.
© D.A. Varela/Miami Herald via ZUMA Press Wire

A close look at a partially bleached mound coral sits on the reef floor after a mass bleaching event at Cheeca Rocks Reef in Islamorada, Florida.
© D.A. Varela/Miami Herald via ZUMA Press Wire

A coral reef at Paradise Reef during a Rescue A Reef coral restoration dive out of Diver's Paradise dive shop in Key Biscayne,.Rosenstiel School scientists are working to establish a new restoration research site off Miami to identify and better understand the heat tolerance of certain coral species and genotypes during bleaching events like this.
© D.A. Varela/Miami Herald via ZUMA Press Wire

A partially bleached mound coral sits on the reef floor after a mass bleaching event in March 2023 at Cheeca Rocks Reef in Islamorada, Florida.
© D.A. Varela/Miami Herald via ZUMA Press Wire

Healthy Staghorn coral hangs from the Paradise Reef nursery during a Rescue A Reef coral restoration dive in Key Biscayne. Rosenstiel School scientists are working to establish a new restoration research site off Miami to identify and better understand the heat tolerance of certain coral species and genotypes during bleaching events like this.
© D.A. Varela/Miami Herald via ZUMA Press Wire