My trip to the Florida Keys made me sick to my stomach

I went snorkeling off Key Largo last Saturday and saw maybe 3 live corals the whole time. The rest was just this gray, crumbly rock with algae growing all over it. The guide said water temps have been too high for 2 summers straight now and the reefs are just dying off. Anyone else seen this kind of damage in their local spots and just feel helpless about it?

3 comments

3 Comments

dakota41526d ago

Yeah the "give it a few cold winters" part really got to me... I've been going to the Keys since I was a kid and it's not just one spot. Took my family out to Sombrero Reef last month and it was like swimming through a graveyard. All those big elkhorn corals I remember from the 2000s are just gone, knocked over and covered in slime. Water was bathwater warm and you could see the algae choking everything. I don't think cold winters are gonna fix it when the baseline keeps getting hotter and hotter... feels like we're watching something die in slow motion and nobody's really doing anything about it.

the_claire26d ago

Stopped by Looe Key last summer and counted maybe five living corals in an hour of swimming around. Rest was just rubble with this greenish brown film over everything, water temp felt like a lukewarm bath. Dad used to tell me about seeing giant brain corals there in the 80s, feels like I'm looking at the after photo of something that used to be alive.

parker_palmer4426d ago

Three live corals doesn't sound great but it's probably just that one spot. I went snorkeling in the Keys about four years ago and it was mostly just sand and a few fish then too. People always say the reefs are dying but they said that back in the 90s when I first started going down there. Maybe the guide was just trying to make the trip sound more dramatic. Give it a few cold winters and things will bounce back like they always do.