Coral in Florida Keys Suffers Lethal Hit from Cold

[Hilary]

I'd heard about the fish and manatee kills, but the cold is also killing off the coral (including some of the nurseries concentrating on growing staghorn and elkhorn).

 

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/v-...ry/1447907.html

[L8 2 RISE]

Wait, I thought global warming was killing the coral!!??

 

 

...Sorry, couldn't help it .

[Happyfeet]

I was down in Florida the day after the the cold left. I went to one of my favorite places to see Manatee's Tampa Electric Power Plant at Apollo. There were hundreds of Manatee's pushed up into the cove where the hot water is expelled. It was really cool, but unfortunetly the beach was littered with dead manatee's.

[OUsnakebyte]

Yes, this is a huge blow to the nurseries that were holding mostly Cervicornis, but also some Palmata as well - especially considering that NOAA just spent 3 million dollars of stilumus grant money to further develop those Florida nurseries.

 

This also drives home the point, at least in my opinion, that ex situ rearing facilites are needed - ones that only hold Caribbean corals with Indo-Pacs nowhere to be found...

 

Cheers

Mike

Edited February 5, 2010 by OUsnakebyte

[L8 2 RISE]

I was down in Florida the day after the the cold left. I went to one of my favorite places to see Manatee's Tampa Electric Power Plant at Apollo. There were hundreds of Manatee's pushed up into the cove where the hot water is expelled. It was really cool, but unfortunetly the beach was littered with dead manatee's.

 

 

Yes, this is a huge blow to the nurseries that were holding mostly Cervicornis, but also some Palmata as well - especially considering that NOAA just spent 3 million dollars of stilumus grant money to further develop those Florida nurseries.

 

This also drives home the point, at least in my opinion, that ex situ rearing facilites are needed - ones that only hold Caribbean corals with Indo-Pacs nowhere to be found...

 

Cheers

Mike

 

 

Wow, I just did some searching since I hadn't really heard much about all of this, and it seems terrible. It's a shame on all fronts.