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Reef relief

In Ruskin, farmers are raising ... coral, which they hope will head to open water to inspire fish and tourists.

By JANET ZINK
Published April 8, 2005

[Times photos: Ken Helle]

Florida Aquarium biologist Sean Coats checks the coral farm exhibit at the aquarium. Researchers are developing a health certificate that would show that coral grown in captivity is disease-free and can be released.

	A banded butterfly fish swims by new coral. The banded butterfly eats the anemones that can stain and kill coral being grown in a tank.

TAMPA - The little squares of coral don't look like much.

They're mostly brown with a smattering of algae - a far cry from the picturesque undersea monuments that beckon divers.

But researchers in Tampa, Ruskin and the Florida Keys hope these modest slabs will one day be the building blocks for new coral reefs populated by colorful marine life and plants.

"I have a dream of farms all over the state of Florida growing massive quantities of corals," said Craig Watson, director of the University of Florida's Tropical Aquaculture Laboratory in Ruskin, as he ran his hand through a tank that holds these slow-growing animals.

Farm-grown coral would help re-establish reefs destroyed by boats, pollution, severe weather, illegal collection and other threats. Instead of having to wait hundreds of years for the coral to grow back naturally, biologists could hasten the process by replanting coral started in a lab.

Watson is working with Ilze Berzins, head veterinarian at the Florida Aquarium in Tampa, and Billy Causey, superintendent of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary in Marathon Key, to get permission from federal regulatory agencies to release farm-raised coral into the wild. Their work is partly funded by a $30,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The researchers are developing a certificate of health that would show that coral grown in captivity is disease-free and won't harm the environment. The health certificate for coral would be similar to those issued for farm-bred snook and tarpon released during restocking programs.

"This is the next step in terms of restoration," Berzins said. "It would accelerate a lot of the work that's going on."

Coral has been grown in aquariums and laboratories for decades and sold for commercial fish tanks, educational displays and research. But federal regulations prohibit putting the animals back in their natural habitat for fear of introducing disease to the environment.

The current method of rebuilding reefs is to transplant coral from existing reefs. But that doesn't solve the problem of diminishing reefs.

"Coral health is in a state of decline all throughout the Caribbean, throughout the world. We need to be able to protect and salvage as much of our coral as we can," said Causey, who supervises an underwater coral farm in the Keys.

Florida coral reefs, the only shallow-water reefs in the continental United States, contribute about $1.2-billion a year to Florida's tourism industry, according to the researchers' grant proposal. The reefs are home to more than 100 species of fish.

But they face destructive pressures from human activity and severe weather, researchers say.

More than 60 percent of the world's coral reefs are threatened, according to the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force. Reefs in Florida and the U.S. Caribbean are in particularly poor condition. Coral in the Florida Keys declined 37 percent from 1997 to 2002, according to a report released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Florida Aquarium biologist Sean Coats planted the seed for the health certificate idea four years ago, when he ushered in a coral farm exhibit at the aquarium. A few years later, researchers from the aquarium, the University of Florida and the marine sanctuary in the Keys came up with the idea of the health certificate while brainstorming ways to speed up restoration of reefs.

Last July, researchers cut coral taken from the Florida Keys into 1-by-1-inch pieces and attached them to a concrete pedestal. The pieces have been growing in tanks in Ruskin, some quite slowly. Even in ideal conditions, coral grows only one-quarter of an inch to 5 inches each year.

The tanks emulate the saltiness and movement of water off the Florida Keys. Greenhouses help keep the water temperature between 72 and 80 degrees, and a handful of mangroves planted in the tanks remove nitrogen and other impurities.

The researchers take pictures of the coral, measure the growth and examine samples under a microscope for disease. They want to know what species will grow best in captivity and under what conditions.

If federal agencies, including NOAA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, approve the health certificate, the coral could be back in open water by the end of this year.

"I think we hit the nail on the head with our research," Watson said.

Using farm-raised coral for restoration could go a long way toward saving coral reefs, the researchers say.

"We can't keep taking, taking, taking. Then we're not going to have anything to take anymore," Berzins said. "We have to make sure we have mechanisms in place so we don't overuse and abuse our natural resources."

Coral is created when tiny marine animals secrete a mineral that turns into a hard skeleton. The coral often forms reefs and atolls in tropical seas. It is most abundant in warm, shallow water. Reefs grow about 0.2 to 1.1 inches a year.

Coral reefs are the most biologically diverse ecosystems of the ocean and are rivaled only by tropical rain forests on land. Fish, mollusks and urchins are among the marine life that call coral reefs home.

Coral reefs contribute about 25 percent of the total fish catch in developing countries, providing food for 1-billion people in Asia alone.

When diving around coral reefs, look but don't touch. Touching can kill them by removing protective mucus or rubbing off delicate tissue.

Florida is the only state in the continental United States to have extensive shallow coral reef formations near its coasts. These reefs extend from near Stuart, on the Atlantic coast, to the Dry Tortugas, west of Key West. Approximately 6,000 coral reefs are found between Key Biscayne and Dry Tortugas.

Coral reefs found in the Pacific Ocean are generally more colorful than those found in Florida and the Caribbean, which typically are earth-tone shades.

Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Infoplease.com, World Wildlife Fund, Florida Aquarium, Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

[Last modified April 7, 2005, 08:55:10]