Coral decay threatens Florida Keys economy
Decay related to climate change damages haven for diving, fishing and tourism along the coast
Twenty feet under water, Nature Conservancy biologist Jennifer Stein swims over to several large corals and pulls several laminated cards from her dive belt.
“Disease,” reads one, as she gestures to a coral that exhibits white splotches. “Recent mortality,” reads another card. Along the miles of coral reef off the Florida Keys, Stein and her fellow divers have found countless examples of this essential form of ocean life facing sickness and death.
The pattern of decay is shaping up as one of the sharpest impacts of climate change in the continental United States — and a direct threat to economic activity in the Keys, a haven for diving, fishing and coastal tourism.
The debate over climate change is often framed as one that pits jobs against the need to protect the planet for future generations. In deciding to exit the Paris climate agreement and roll back domestic environmental regulations, the Trump administration said it was working to protect jobs. But what is happening here — as the warming of the sea devastates the coral reef — is a stark example of how rising temperatures can threaten existing economies.
The 113-mile-long Overseas Highway between the mainland and Key West — linking islands that themselves emerged from an ancient coral archipelago — is lined with marinas, bait and tackle shops and an abundance of seafood restaurants.
From the visitors who fill dive charters out of Key Largo to the local fishing industry’s catches of spiny lobsters, grouper, snapper and other species, nearly everything in the Florida Keys is tied in some way to the reefs. Beyond the diving, snorkeling, fishing and sightseeing, virtually every tourist activity will be harmed if the reefs continue to suffer damage.
Cece Roycraft and a partner own the Dive Key West shop, which sells scuba gear and runs boat charters. Their operation depends on a healthy reef system, because divers naturally are not as interested in exploring dead or damaged reefs, which do not attract as many fish and can be covered in algae. It is an economic reality accepted by residents of the Keys but not yet widely recognized by other Americans, she said.
“It’s equal to the Yellowstone Park, OK?” said Roycraft, who worked to help create a federal program that certifies vessels that train their crews in proper coral protection practices, including following proper mooring rules and ensuring that divers do not poke and prod the reefs.
Tourism “is the economic engine of the Florida Keys. There is no other way for people to make money,” Roycraft said.
Three and a half million people visit the Keys each year — nearly 47 for each of the area’s 75,000 full-time residents. Tourism supplies 54 percent of all island jobs and fuels a $2.7 billion economy, according to Monroe County, which includes the Keys and a significant portion of Everglades National Park.
The importance attached to the reef system defies the usual political divides. Here in the Keys, people voted 51 percent to 44 percent in favor of Donald Trump in the presidential election — but they seem to differ from the president in their support for government-funded programs to protect the environment.
In March, amid fears that the administration might try to defund Environmental Protection Agency programs that protect the reef system, Monroe County’s board of commissioners called for sustaining the EPA’s role and declared in a board resolution that “a healthy marine environment is essential and the most important contributor to the economy of the Florida Keys.”
The EPA’s South Florida program, which received $ 1.7 million in federal funds in fiscal 2017, conducts coral surveys. Trump’s proposed 2018 federal budget seeks to eliminate the allocation.
In recent years, the islands have spent millions of dollars, including some federal money, to convert to central sewer systems, ending the damaging practice of allowing human waste to seep into the ocean from septic tanks. But what is coming into focus is that the threats to the reef system cannot be countered locally. Ecologists describe the 360-mile-long Florida Reef Tract as a global treasure. It is the world’s third-largest barrier reef.
But less than 10 percent of the reef system is now covered with living coral. Scientists anticipate that as early as 2020, it could be in line for almost yearly bleaching events, in which heat stresses upend the metabolism of corals, in some cases killing them.
In the Keys, longtime residents say there’s just no parallel between the reef of today — which still impresses inexperienced tourist divers — and what locals saw decades ago. Mimi Stafford is a Key West-based master of all trades — commercial fishing, massage therapy, marine biology — who has lived here for decades.
“When I was a child in the ’60s, the water was so clear I used to think of it as being Coke bottle blue,” said Stafford. “And the reef was so healthy, all the coral was very alive. I don’t recall even thinking about bleaching or coral death or coral diseases back then.”