An unidentified disease is ravaging Florida's 360-mile-long coral reef

Florida is home to the world's third-largest coral reef, but it's quickly crumbling away.

Rising ocean temperatures have bleached Florida's corals, making them prone to disease — including the one that is currently ravaging the 360-mile-long reef. A bacterial disease has swept through nearly half of Florida's corals over the past four years, and NPR says that the unidentified infection can kill a coral within weeks.

YouTube

Watch On

Coral bleaching, which turns reefs white and weak, has even reached Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up

Luckily, Florida's corals have science on their side. NPR shared the endeavors of Mote Marine Lab's Center for Coral Reef Research and Restoration, where scientists are growing baby corals in controlled tanks. Once they've matured, the fledglings are replanted into adult reefs to reproduce.

Many transplants have proved resistant to the mystery disease, something the Mote Lab's science director called a "beacon of hope." The lab is still looking for a way to stop the epidemic, but in the meantime, replanting looks like the only way to save coral from collapse.