What scientists saw underwater in Florida left them "shocked" -- and devastated

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

The idea of extinction — the permanent loss of life — is frightening. Yet the stakes of losing plants and animals are often unclear. If an already-rare bird vanishes from the forest, most people probably won’t feel the impact.

But a troubling situation unfolding in Florida is different. Following a record-shattering heat wave in 2023, two marine species are now nearly extinct in the state — and the impact of that loss on human life will likely be felt for generations.

In a new study published this week in Science, researchers found that elkhorn and staghorn corals — two species once fundamental to the structure of Florida’s reef — are now “functionally extinct” in the state. That means these animals are so rare that they no longer serve a function in Florida’s marine ecosystem.

Why extreme heat kills corals

Corals are colonies of living animals, known as polyps, that have a symbiotic relationship with a kind of algae that lives inside their cells. The algae give coral food — and their color — in exchange for nutrients and a place to absorb sunlight.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/scientists-saw-underwater-florida-left-180000267.html

[efhmc]

1. If only we could have been warned about this. Yes, sadly it is sarcasm.

[Ritabert]

2. The reef off the Keys has been going downhill for years

...and the marine life in Florida Bay from the Everglades to the Keys has been declining for years due to agricultural runoff from the sugar fields near Lake Okeechobee.

[BeneteauBum]

3. It's been disheartening to experience the degradation

My first time to the Keys was in ‘61. Since 1970, I have made frequent dive trips from Pennecamp to Key West and over that time I’ve seen the effects of greed combined with indifference destroy this fragile environment.

After retiring over fifteen years ago, I now enjoy a liveaboard lifestyle here. For years I have confronted local politicians over the impacts of the burgeoning population here. Nearly all supported building to increase the tax base despite not having the adequate infrastructure to support these plans. It’s sickening….everything is done on the cheap….one bandaid fix after the next. All to enrich the developers…..the same story throughout Florida.

Just read where corals have passed the environmental tipping point. That’s just a start for our planet. The idiots in charge continue to deny the impacts of climate change……my grandkids will experience a vastly different environment. It just kills my soul.

Peace ☮️

[Warpy]

4. You can't drain large expanses of wetlands to put up tract houses

and not expect to have both onshore and offshore ecological disaster.

Developers have killed much of what once made that state a good place to visit.

[blue_jay]

6. So true, similar thing with cutting down vast swaths of forest

Last edited Sat Oct 25, 2025, 05:38 PM - Edit history (1)

for either housing developments or agriculture creating new wind tunnels, loss of O2, loss of wind block, heat absorption and more trees down due to loss of the aforementioned windblock. So sad to be powerless to stop the destruction of our oceans and land.

[Warpy]

7. To be fairer, most the deforestation of the US was to feed the industrial revolution

and the second largest cause was clearing the land for agriculture. Farmland given over to tract housing came later when small farms on the edges of cities generated more income as suburbia while larger farms consolidated and mechanized.

Soime reforestation has taken place with the discovery of fossil fuels for industry.

[blue_jay]

8. Oh, you want me to fairer,

some times I just like to vent and am more lazy than fair when I do...

Good points. I am just in the midst of current deforestation from neighborhood building projects, etc. in the northwest and have watched the urban sprawl painfully first hand. I appreciate the more complete and studied input that I don't currently have time to be learning about. We are smarter together than alone.

[BurnDoubt]

5. Poo Tee Weet.

[thought crime]

9. This is what makes the transition to clean energy urgent.

There are objections to offshore wind energy because of environmental concerns - risk to wildlife - but these pale by comparison to the damage from climate change.