Divers from the Reef Restoration Program planted their 100,000th coral on Saturday at Turtle Shoal, off the Leonida Keys. Since 2019, volunteers and marine scientists have replanted 31 acres of reef.
Corals are grown from small fragments in underwater nurseries, on frames that look like trees. After nine months they are fixed to the reef with marine cement, in clusters that grow together faster than single colonies.
Five years ago this shoal was rubble. Now there are parrotfish, lobsters and young coral everywhere you look. A reef can come back if you give it a hand.
Survival rates have reached 82% for the most heat-resistant species. The program will open two new nurseries next year, and certified divers can join a planting day through the State Parks site.
