ONLY 63 UNIQUE
pillar coral colonies, above, are currently alive in the Florida Reef Tract, so a group of scientists are working together to save the species, which is under threat of extinction.
APOLLO BEACH — Only 63 unique pillar coral colonies are currently alive in the Florida Reef Tract, so a group of scientists, including those at the Tampa-based Florida Aquarium have banded together to save the species, which is under threat of local extinction.
In addition to ocean acidification attributable to global warming, pillar coral colonies — which grow in stubby, cigar-like fingers — are susceptible to a spreading disease that causes tissue loss in coral — leaving nothing but the calcium carbonate bone — that was first discovered off of Miami in 2014.
The Florida Reef Tract extends from Biscayne Bay to the Dry Tortugas. The reef, nearly 150 miles long and four miles wide, is the third-largest barrier reef ecosystem in the world. Most of that is within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
Last month, scientists confirmed that disease, which has already spread north, had moved south and west — jumping west past the gap of the Seven Mile Bridge to the reefs off of Looe Key.
The disease first shows itself in a species known as Meandrina coral, commonly known as maze coral.
Pillar coral, or Dendrogyra cylindrus, is equally susceptible to the disease and also significantly rarer, noted Keri O’Neil, the coral nursery manager at Florida Aquarium’s Center for Conservation in Apollo Beach.
In the Florida Reef Tract, maze coral outnumbers pillar coral 50 to 1, she added — that was before the impact of the disease.
The genetic rescue project was created in November 2015 by Karen Neely, a former coral biologist with Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in Marathon and currently an adjunct professor at Florida Keys Community College and Cindy Lewis deputy director and lead scientific researcher at the Keys Marine Laboratory on Long Key.
It involves a wide variety of partners, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the Coral Restoration Foundation, and Mote Marine Laboratory.
“The story that there’s a disease killing of Florida corals is important,” O’Neil said. “There’s an equally important story of an unprecedented level of cooperation that is occurring between government agencies, nonprofits and universities.”