Coral Conservation activities in Key Largo
Coral Conservation with Iconic Reef Guardians
Help save our reefs with Iconic Reef guardians in the Florida Keys!
The coral reef needs our help to grow and re-establish itself. Since the 1970s the reefs in the Keys have been in decline due to pollution, tourism and increasing local population in Florida. Over the past few years we have seen the effects of climate change raise the temperature of the water to a a point in the last few years large amounts of corals have become stressed and some have died. Corals do not function well in seawater temperatures over F84 and will start to get stressed with the first symptom of this is to expel the zooxanthellae from its body. The zooxanthellae give the coral its nutrients and color and the coral becomes white. The corals can recover from this if the temperature drops after a short while. This is what the coral Its estimated that we have lost 90% of our reef in the Florida Keys.
Mission Iconic Reefs
NOAA have established a program of work to replace the corals, Mission:Iconic Reefs at 7 iconic reefs in the Florida Keys. The goal of this initiative is to restore the reefs to have 25% stoney coral cover by planting reef building corals such as Staghorn, Elkhorn, Pillar and blade corals to increase biodiversity across the reefs.
This involves a role for local dive shops known as Icon Reef Guardians. This is a partnership between the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and local dive shops. The aim is to help in the long term restoration of the reefs, local to the dive shops, who in turn will involve their customers in these citizen science programs.
The reefs will need help to grow after the new corals have been planted and there will be an active role for citizen scientists to help with pest and debris removals from the newly planted corals. These citizen science activities will be run under the Iconic Reef Guardians programs.
Iconic Reef Locations
The 7 Iconic Reefs are listed North to South below. The 2 reefs nearest us in Key Largo are Carysfort and Elbow reef. Click on the links to see the estimated number of corals that will be planted at these locations.
Cheeca rocks
Newfound Harbor
Sombrero Reef – Marathon
Looe Key Reef – Loe Key
Eastern Dry Rocks – Key West
The closest reef to us in Key Largo is horseshoe reef. This document outlines the planned work at this site!
Iconic Reef Guardians program in Key Largo
The first phase of the program is to train dive shops to conduct guided tours of the Tavenier Nursery with an eventual aim of planting coral and managing out planted coral communities. We are currently in the first phase and able to offer these unique tours of the Tavenier nursery.
Local dive shops have been specially trained by the Coral Restoration Foundation, the experts in coral restoration, to help restore the reefs. In turn local dive shops are looking for volunteers and conservation minded people to get involved with reef restoration.
We have a number of authorized tours to the CRF nursery where SCUBA divers will be guided through the coral nursery by our experienced and specially trained guide.
Tour programe
Our boat travels for around 35 mins to the Tavenier coral nursery where we moor up to a special designated bouy. You will get a brief on the nursery and the dive plan for divers. After entering the water divers will decend and swim between the coral trees for around 35 mins. You will be taken through the trees in a single file formation and please note that currently this is a no touch tour. Whilst traveling through the nursery you are likely to see a large amount of wildlife hanging amongst the trees as well as turtles cruising by. All the trees and underwater paths are carefully numbered to ensure we keep to the right areas. There are so many coral trees we need a special map to navigate through the trees. We aim to conduct 2 dives on this tour at the nursery so you get to see the whole amazing nursery.
This tour is open to all certified divers. All divers will need to have excellent buoyancy skills to ensure they can stay between the trees and not get tangled up. All dive equipment should also be streamlined. If you are bringing your own gear we will assess for streamline suitability before we leave the dock, if you need any additional equipment we will have it available for you.
All tours are weather dependent and we do not generally run these tours when the wave hight is over 3 feet. This is for the safety of our SCUBA divers and the coral trees as these wave hights often create a swell in the ocean that can cause the divers to get washed into the trees and the risk of entanglement.
Tour dates available
2024
Saturday 30 November
Saturday 28 December
2025
TBA
Tour costs
Our scheduled tours of the coral nursery are $125 per person and this includes 2 tanks and weights. Space is limited to 8 participants on each tour. To find out if we have spaces available and to book online head over to our booking system.
Want to learn more about Coral conservation?
Head over to the NOAA Iconic Reefs webpage for the complete story on Mission Iconic Reefs.
What can you do to protect the coral reefs?