Scott Atwell, Communications and Outreach Manager for the Florida Keys Marine Sanctuary, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM yesterday to talk about what’s been going on in the sanctuary.
How are the temperatures in the water right now?
Atwell said, “I’ll tell you, at the start of August, we were a little bit worried about this spike that happened. I mean, it came up really, really quickly on the sea surface, and it looked ominously similar to 2023, that heat wave that decimated everything, but fortunately, after about a week, around this time last week, it backed off and it dropped below the bleaching threshold. We have a graphic of this on our Facebook and Instagram pages, so it doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods yet, but it does mean that the sustained heat, which is the crucial test. That’s what we’re really worried about, and it hasn’t occurred yet. We expect hopefully some positive impact from Erin, and I know she’s blowing past already, but maybe some more wind and waves, which helps to damp down the water temperature. So we’ll see how it goes. But that, that early spike in August that had us worried, did, in fact, go away.”
There was a week of coral spawning recently.
Atwell said, “At 10:20pm each August, four days after the full moon, the corals are going to spawn, as strange as that sounds. The team from Reef Renewal, one of our mission iconic reef partners, was standing by at their in water nursery off Tavernier last week when, well, both staghorn and Elkhorn corals released their gametes. Now, it happens every year and so what’s the big deal? Well, it’s the first time that Reef Renewal had this happen in their in water nursery with Elkhorn coral attached, those tree like structures that you see out in the water. And the reason is that Elkhorn coral when they become large enough to spawn, they’re usually too large to be left on those trees in the nursery. But for several reasons, this year, hundreds of Elkhorn coral, basketball sized Elkhorn coral remained in the nursery this year. These are corals that have shown resistance to heat and so Reef Renewal was there at 10:20pm to collect that the sperm and eggs as they were released, then they were quickly taken to shore up to the University of Miami, where they were allowed to fertilize, and that’s where they’re going to remain until they’re large enough to return maybe as soon as a year from now, and can begin the process of finding out which of those will help us rebuild the reef. The Elkhorn coral, you know it when you see it, right? It does look like elk horns when you see it underwater, they’re large. They are the reef building corals. They grow really fast, important in protecting land from storms and sea surge. We have to figure out ways to leverage successes like this, because they’re the ones are going to they’re going to help us keep the reef and fortunately, we have millions of possibilities from last week, spawning and Reef Renewal has figured out that they can make this happen in the nursery, which is going to make things a lot easier in the future. We’ve got pictures, again, actually a video on our social media pages, Facebook and Instagram.”
Mote Marine and Coral Restoration Foundation also had spawning in their nurseries.
Atwell said, “The thing that made this one unique for Reef Renewal is that it was their Elkhorn corals and Mote and CRF, the staghorn corals are a little bit smaller in size, and so they’re not as unwieldy to be left on those trees when they’re sexually mature. But the Elkhorn was a different story. And Ken Niedermeyer from Reef Renewal, who was contacting me less last week, he was just giddy about it, so I was very happy.”
Fishing is open again at the Western Dry Rocks.
Atwell said, “Western dry rocks is just off Key West, and each year, beginning in April, there’s a four month closure by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission. So those fish out there can spawn, and we leave them alone, and our role is only putting out the boundary buoys in that area, so folks know that it’s a managed area, and then we take them away once August gets here, and our team did that again this year. I mention it because the current just rips out there at Western dry rocks, and our buoy team is so talented, I just wanted to tip the hat to them. When they went out in April to put out the buoys, they had trouble finding one of the subsurface buoys because the current virtually had the buoy in a horizontal position, and when they went back out this time, beginning of August to retrieve the buoys again, the current was virtually pushing these 36 inch yellow buoys underwater, and they got video of it, so we had that on social media pages as well. So I just wanted to tip the hat to these great NOAA divers we have on our team in the in the Key West area. So that area is back open for fishing. Just watch out for the current.”
There will be some television time for the diving team this weekend.
Atwell said it’s the “second week in a row that our Mission Iconic Reef’s own, Dr. Katie Lesneski, research monitoring coordinator, is going to be featured on Destination Dives, which is a TV program which airs on Discovery Channel. So it’s every Sunday morning, at 8am. Tune in and see about the great work that Mission Iconic Reef is doing. I think this week’s is about Islamorada and some of the corals off of Islamorada and how we have some hope and they’re doing well.”
There is another sanctuary added to the list of hope spots.
Atwell said, “It’s a reminder that Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary is one of 18 protected areas in the National Marine Sanctuary system, and we have some spectacular sister sanctuaries out on the West Coast, including two that are very close together in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Greater Farallone Sanctuary. It’s part of a UNESCO Golden Gate biosphere, and it was declared a hope spot by Sylvia Earle in 2021 but just this week, her organization decided to combine that one with a nearby sanctuary called Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary. So now together, they are a hope spot, and we want to tip our hat to our colleagues. It was one year ago that the Florida Keys, Biscayne Bay and the 10,000 islands together were selected as a hope spot, becoming the 163rd such location that was lauded for its critical role in ocean health. Now, of course, you’re asking, what does it mean to become a hope spot? Essentially, it’s a recognition that the area, and even those that are already protected, like the Florida Keys, that they are championed by local conservationists and supported by mission blue, which is Sylvia Earles’ organization, supported through their advocacy and resources. The goal simply is to raise awareness and empower communities and ultimately protect these vital marine ecosystems. So establishing the Florida Keys as a mission blue hope spot strengthens our efforts, the ones that we do every day to raise awareness about the importance of this national treasure that we call home in the Florida Keys.”
If anyone wants to keep track of the heat of the waters, check out the website below.
Atwell said, “We have a network of buoys that report real time temperature at one meter below the surface and then at the sea floor. I think there’s 17 different buoys all up and down the Keys that report this in real time, but it also reports wind and wave height and the direction of the wind. You can find the link to that on our homepage, and look for the story about real time sea surface temperature, and you can keep track of it yourself in real time.”
For more information, click here: https://floridakeys.noaa.gov/