Florida’s Coral Reef stretches more than 350 miles along our coast and supports a quarter of all marine life in our waters. This remarkable ecosystem provides food, shelter, and nursery habitat for countless species while helping protect our shoreline and fueling Florida’s coastal economy.
But this underwater wonder is in crisis.
Rising ocean temperatures, invasive species, and devastating disease have pushed many corals to the brink. Since its appearance in 2014, stony coral tissue loss disease has spread across the length of Florida’s Coral Reef, wiping out entire colonies. Once-dominant reef builders like staghorn and elkhorn corals are now considered functionally extinct in the wild.
Yet even in the face of these challenges, there is hope.
Six years ago today, our Foundation partnered with Disney Conservation, SeaWorld, and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums to create the Florida Coral Rescue Center (FCRC) in Orlando. Today, the facility holds the world’s largest collection of rescued Florida corals.
The center serves as both a safe haven and a working laboratory. Coral rescued ahead of the advancing disease by Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission biologists are carefully maintained by the experts at SeaWorld. These scientists and aquarists study them, help them grow, and encourage their propagation to preserve the genetic diversity of Florida’s reefs.
Inside the facility, rows of tanks glow under blue lights that mimic the conditions of the ocean. Each coral colony represents a piece of Florida’s reef that might otherwise have been lost forever, especially after recent heatwaves decimated entire reefs in the Florida Keys. FCRC staff have even succeeded in encouraging threatened species to spawn in human care. In one remarkable milestone, the team helped induce spawning in rough cactus coral (Mycetophyllia ferox), something never accomplished before.
The work happening here is already producing remarkable results. During recent spawning seasons, FCRC staff successfully observed multiple coral species release their eggs and sperm in perfect synchrony, one of the ocean’s most extraordinary natural events. Scientists were able to fertilize and develop hundreds of thousands of coral larvae, which were distributed to research institutions and restoration programs across the country. These tiny corals will help scientists better understand how to grow resilient reefs and may one day return to the ocean to rebuild what has been lost.
In total, millions of coral larvae produced through these efforts have supported research and restoration projects designed to strengthen Florida’s Coral Reef for the future.
Even with these incredible milestones, the work is far from finished. Scientists are continuing to study ways to breed corals that can better withstand warming waters and disease, work that requires more space to grow.
Plans are now underway to expand the FCRC, more than doubling its current footprint. We have already raised nearly half of the funds needed to make this expansion possible.
You can help us reach the finish line by donating to our Restoring Our Reefs Fund.
