So why hope? Because we keep seeing evidence that corals can survive, become more resilient, and even recover if we give them a chance by cleaning up water quality, protecting them from coastal development and dredging, and reducing fishing pressure. But, to me, it felt like a ghost of its former self. Folks on the dive boat who’d never seen these reefs exclaimed over the lovely fish. Carpets of algae had crowded out the coral in shallower spots. When I returned in 2009 after a coral conference, my heart sank. I’d float in one spot, just watching the commerce and drama of the coral city unfold, until I was pruny and sunburned and my parents finally hauled me back to dry land.Īs a college senior getting scuba certified, I revisited some of those spots and saw less coral, more algae, fewer fish. Thickets of staghorn coral and patches of brain coral, all flitting with jewel-colored baby angelfish, damselfish, butterflyfish. Already, the old-timers down there were shaking their heads over how much life the reef had lost, but to me it was a wonderland. When I was little, my parents would pack us into the old station wagon and drive down to the Florida Keys for a week of snorkeling in North America’s only coral barrier reef. I’ve witnessed the breathtaking decline of Florida reefs in my lifetime.
It’s no secret that coral reefs are in trouble. What does it mean to work toward a resilient, abundant world in the face of global biodiversity and climate crises? It has to mean more than just holding the line, staving off the “inevitable.” What if, faced with loss and chaos, we demanded more? As Urban Ocean Lab Co-Founder Ayana Elizabeth Johnson asks, what if we get it right? But these hearty little coral colonies provide a spark of hope. Coral reefs off the southern Florida coast have suffered from water pollution and disease linked to ill-advised dredging projects and woefully inadequate regulations. A smile spread across my face as I read about a few “urban corals” off the Miami coast that are thriving, despite distinctly suboptimal water quality.
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