A Florida Keys coral reef just got $5M worth of help

A $5 million grant will help restore Eastern Dry Rocks, one of seven iconic reefs in the federally protected waters that surround the Florida Keys.

The project includes planting more than 60,000 corals and employing professional dive shops and community groups to help prepare the reef by removing debris.

“It’s to start restoration on a scale that really hasn’t been done before,” said Chip Weiskotten, of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation.

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded the $5 million through the National Coastal Resilience Fund, a public-private partnership, to the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation.

In the Keys, the project includes Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium and the Coral Restoration Foundation.

Eastern Dry Rocks, which is about seven miles southeast of Key West and is part of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, is sorely in need of help, researchers said.

“It’s in pretty bad shape,” said Weiskotten, of Eastern Dry Rocks. “Degradation has really taken over. It was once this amazing example of a beautiful reef in the Keys.”

For its part, the Coral Restoration Foundation will provide more than 35,000 lab-grown corals at Eastern Dry Rocks.

“This grant signals a turning point for reef restoration,” said Scott Winters, CEO of CRF. “And it is happening not a moment too soon.”

In 2019, NOAA announced Mission: Iconic Reefs, a plan to restore nearly 3 million square feet of the Florida Reef Tract. It’s one of the largest strategies ever proposed for coral restoration.

“They’re basically the fish nurseries,” Weiskotten said of the reefs. “There are other benefits like coastal resilience. They act as storm breakers protecting the coastline.”

In 2019, the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation released a study showing economic activity generated in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary adds up to $4.4 billion and 43,000 jobs across the state.

“Unfortunately, this vital ecosystem is slipping into functional extinction before our eyes,” said Michael P. Crosby, Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium president and CEO.

The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary protects 3,800 square miles of waters surrounding the Florida Keys.

On Nov. 17, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and NOAA announced more than $37 million in new grants from the National Coastal Resilience Fund to support coastal resilience projects in 25 states and U.S. territories.

Congress authorized funding under the National Oceans and Coastal Security Act, allowing grants to be awarded through the NCRF, a partnership among NFWF, NOAA, Shell Oil Company, TransRe, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and AT&T, with additional funding support this year from the U.S. Department of Defense.

Gwen Filosa

Miami Herald

Gwen Filosa covers Key West and the Lower Florida Keys for FLKeysNews.com and the Miami Herald and lives in Key West. She was part of the staff at the New Orleans Times-Picayune that in 2005 won two Pulitzer Prizes for coverage of Hurricane Katrina. She graduated from Indiana University.