After ships ground on the reefs off southeast Florida, divers attempt to salvage damaged coral. They search the sea floor for fragments and reattach them to the reef with cement, hoping the tiny, endangered sea animals survive.
To make the biological rescue work more effective, scientists from Nova Southeastern University's Oceanographic Center have begun a research project to learn which types of coral are most likely to live on after such trauma. Using volunteer divers, they are collecting pieces of broken coral off Fort Lauderdale, attaching them to an artificial reef and studying the results.
Corals are tiny animals that draw calcium from the sea to create external limestone skeletons, which form reefs. Often compared to tropical rain forests in their diversity of species, coral reefs teem with fish, crabs, sea urchins, sponges and other creatures.
The reefs off southeast Florida, the only major coral reefs in the continental United States, face any number of threats -- disease, sewage, overfishing. But in an area teeming with cruise ships, pleasure boats and freighters, groundings are a serious problem.
In 1998, the Panamanian freighter Hind dragged its anchor during a storm, severely damaging two sections of the first reef off Fort Lauderdale. In 1993, the nuclear-powered attack submarine USS Memphis struck a reef off Hollywood, carving two trenches into the reef and generating rubble over an area half the size of a football field. There have been many smaller accidents, most unreported.
After a grounding, the ship's owner is generally required to pay for environmental restoration work, including the salvage of coral.
"Managing a ship grounding is something tangible, something we can do," said David Gilliam, research scientist at Nova's National Coral Reef Institute, who is leading the coral nursery project. "We can at least do our best to minimize harm."
One Sunday a month, the Nova scientists and a group of volunteer divers from the Ocean Watch Foundation set out in two boats to the reefs off Fort Lauderdale. Prowling the ocean floor about 35 feet down, they collect bits of broken coral -- detached through natural processes such as erosion or storms. They try to collect about 20 pieces of coral a trip. The most common species: great star coral, starlet coral and maze coral.