A Debrief From Kimberly’s Reef: Saving Coral

FLORIDA'S CORAL REEFS ARE UNDER ATTACK, ACCORDING TO NOAA, OVER 90% OF LIVE CORAL HAS BEEN LOST OFF THE COAST OF FLORIDA. ONE OF THE MORE SERIOUS THREATS, A DESTRUCTIVE DISEASE WITH THAT 90% MORTALITY RATE WGCU’S PAM JAMES SHARES HOW KIMBERLY'S REEF AN UNDERWATER LIVING LABORATORY IS LEARNING HOW TO FIGHT THE ILLNESS AND PROTECT LOCAL CORAL. HERE'S THE LATEST DISPATCH. CORALS ARE HAVING A ROUGH GO OF IT. ACCORDING TO DR. SARAH WILLIAMS WITH MOTE MARINE LABORATORY. >> AND IT'S ARE FACING A LOT OF DIFFERENT STRESSORS THE STATE AS A WHOLE MULTITUDE OF CHALLENGES. ONE OF THE MAJOR ONES IS INCREASING TEMPERATURES FROM OCEAN WARMING AS WELL AS LOWER PH FROM OCEAN ACIDIFICATION. ZARA OCEANS ARE BECOMING MORE ACIDIC. THEY ALSO FACE DISEASE OUTBREAKS SO CORAL REEFS ARE MADE UP OF ALL THESE ANIMALS. AND SO JUST LIKE HUMANS, THEY GET SICK. SO THEY'RE FACING DISEASE OUTBREAKS ON MAJOR SCALES. >> DR WILLIAMS KNOWS WHAT SHE'S TALKING ABOUT. SHE DOES RESEARCH AT MOST CORAL HEALTH AND DISEASE RESEARCH PROGRAM. LATELY. SHE AND SCIENTISTS FROM COLLABORATING INSTITUTIONS LIKE THE UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI IN STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY IN NEW YORK. I HAVE BEEN RESEARCHING MOUNTAIN, A STAR CORALS BECAUSE THEY FIRST ARE AN ESSENTIAL SPECIES FOR BUILDING REEFS. AND SECOND, THEY HAPPEN TO BE HIGHLY SUSCEPTIBLE TO WHAT IS CALLED STONY CORAL TISSUE LOSS DISEASE. >> THIS DISEASE HAS BEEN DEVASTATING THROUGHOUT FLORIDA AND MUCH OF THE CARIBBEAN AND EFFECTS OVER HALF OF THE CORAL SPECIES WE SEE ON FLORIDA'S CORAL REEFS AND WHAT WE DID BACK IN 2022, WAS WE TOOK DISEASE CORALS FROM THE REEF BROUGHT THEM BACK TO THE LAB, CHOPPED THEM UP. BUT THE NEW LAW TAKES AN EXPOSE HEALTHY CORALS TO THAT DISEASE. CORAL TO SEE WHICH OF THE HEALTHY CORALS WOULD GET THE DISEASE IF THEY GOT IT HELP FAST, DID THEY GET THE DISEASE HELPED LEAD TO THE DYE? MOST FIRST EXPERIMENT SHOWED THAT OF 154 GENETIC SAMPLES. >> 12, 4 FULLY RESISTANT TO THE STONY CORAL TISSUE LOSS DISEASE AND THEY SAW SOMETHING ELSE. >> WE ALSO SAW A LITTLE BIT OF A SLIDING SCALE OF RESISTANCE. SO THERE WERE SOME INTERMEDIATE RESISTANT CORALS WHERE MAYBE ONE OR 2 OF THE REPLICA, IT STAYED HEALTHY THROUGHOUT THE EXPERIMENTS. AND THEN MAYBE OF THOSE THAT DID GET DISEASE. THEY DIDN'T GET IT AS QUICKLY AS THE REST OF THE CORALS OR THAT TOOK LONGER FOR THEM TO DIE. >> WILLIAMS SAID THE MOUNTAIN STAR CORAL IS A PRIORITY FOR RESTORATION EFFORTS FOR MODE SO THEY CAN CONTINUE TO PLANT THE DISEASE RESISTANT CORALS ON TO FLORIDA'S REEFS. SCIENTISTS FROM THE PARTNERING INSTITUTIONS THEN USED OVER 2500 HEALTHY SAMPLES FROM MOTE TO STUDY THE GENETICS OF THE STAR CORAL. >> AND FROM THAT, WE CAN FIGURE OUT WHAT TRAITS ARE BIOMARKERS MAKE THE CORAL RESISTANCE AND THEN WE DON'T HAVE TO DO THIS. NASA EXPERIMENTS WHERE WE END UP, YOU KNOW, KILLING QUITE A FEW CORALS TO SAVE THE REEF. WE CAN JUST TAKE A SMALL SAMPLE FROM NEW CORALS. ARE YOU USING TO FIGURE OUT OH, YES, THE SQUIRREL'S GOING TO BE RESISTANT TO A SEAT LT. SO WE SHOULD USE THIS ONE AND PRIORITIZE CAUTIONS THAT THEIR RESEARCH DOESN'T GUARANTEE LONG-TERM RESTORATION SUCCESS. >> BUT IT IS A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. WITH WGCU, I'M PAM JAMES. >> WGCU PUBLIC MEDIA'S LATEST DOCUMENTARY KIMBERLY'S REEF, AN UNDERWATER LIVING LABORATORY CHRONICLES THE ORIGINS AND EFFORTS BEING MADE BY THIS TRULY REMARKABLE SUBMERGED RESEARCH FACILITY. IT PREMIERES THURSDAY, OCTOBER FIRST AT 8:00PM ON WGCU TV.