An Underwater Race To Transplant Miami's Rare Corals

[jimsflies]

Here's an interesting article that features one of our former sponsors Coral Morphologic @Morphologic:

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A lab just off Florida's Miami River has become the base for an unusual lifesaving operation.

A group of scientists there is on an urgent mission to save as many corals as it can before the marine creatures are destroyed as part of an underwater excavation of Miami's shipping channel. The channel — set to be dredged and deepened on Saturday — is home to a thriving coral reef.

Coral reefs are protected throughout the Atlantic and Caribbean. Even scientists aren't allowed to take coral from the wild without special permits. But in Biscayne Bay, Colin Foord and a small group of marine researchers are racing the clock.

"They're calling these 'corals of opportunity' — essentially, corals that are living in a place that is slated to be destroyed for a government infrastructure project," Foord says. "They basically allowed us to go in at the last minute and rescue all of the smaller corals that were left behind."

Read the full article here.