Tucked away in an office park hundreds of miles from the southeast Florida coast where North America’s only barrier reef is at dire risk, a collection of brain corals performed a once-a-year feat — producing a constellation of egg sacks, each a bundle of hope.
The brain corals, with their geometric design of grooves, are among more than 500 coral specimens arranged within rows of tanks inside the Florida Coral Rescue Center, a facility staffed by SeaWorld and funded by Disney, the Fish and Wildlife Foundation of Florida, and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The nondescript facility is situated a few miles from the theme parks, off a congested highway.
The half-dozen conservationists gathered here on a recent evening had invested a year’s worth of work in the event. They calibrated the lighting to emulate the days, nights, and seasons of the Florida Keys, from where many of the corals were rescued. And they maintained the water inside the tanks to ensure the chemistry and temperature were precise, to recreate conditions that would signal to the corals it was ... Read more
