For decades, the Florida Keys were home to vast underwater thickets of staghorn and elkhorn coral. Divers once described some parts of the Florida Reef Tract as so crowded with branching corals that they could swim through them almost like an underwater forest.
Then the corals began disappearing. Disease, coral bleaching and powerful storms devastated reefs across the Florida Keys, with some staghorn and elkhorn coral populations falling by nearly 90%. Restoring them would require more than protecting the remaining colonies. Scientists and conservationists needed a practical way to grow large numbers of corals and return them to damaged reefs.
