Florida’s coral reef recovery shows progress after recent dive by Florida Aquarium

Restoring Florida's coral reefs

A recent trip to the Florida Keys is giving scientists at the Florida Aquarium hope for our coral reefs. FOX 13's Briona Arradondo reports. 

TAMPA, Fla. - A November 2025 dive to Davis Reef delivered a promising sight for Florida Aquarium scientists working to restore the ecosystem after 2023’s devastating coral bleaching event.

The backstory:

Inside their greenhouses at Apollo Beach, Florida Aquarium scientists grow baby coral that are eventually planted on Florida’s reefs.

"Once they get to the size of a full plug is when we’ll be like, ‘Oh, we have these corals available who needs them out to our partners,’" said Brian Reckenbeil, a coral restoration manager at the Florida Aquarium.

 Up to 10,000 corals are grown at the aquarium each year and sent off around the state, including the University of Miami where they are studying heat-resistant coral. It’s a priority after the devastating 2023 coral bleaching event from record high water temperatures.

"There's a bay called Tela Bay in Honduras that has a lot of Elkhorn corals that have always survived all the bleaching events that are killing a lot the corals we have here in Florida."

University of Miami actually imported 14 of these colonies, and they gave seven of them to us here," said Matt Wade, a senior biologist with the Florida Aquarium.

What we know:

Senior biologist Matt Wade said they are keeping about 20 of the baby coral they’ve grown, and they recently sent about 300 to Miami.

"This is a cross between our Honduras broodstock and our Florida broodstock," said Wade. "They're putting them out on their experimental reefs to see if they handle the higher temperatures better than our Florida crosses."

Raising the coral is a process, from mimicking sun and moon cycles to water quality and getting the temperature just right between 74 degrees to 82 degrees.

Why you should care:

2025’s hurricane season was quiet for Florida, and that was a relief not just for us but also our coral.

"It actually helped this year because it kept the water from getting quite so hot this year," said Wade.

Healthy coral matters because it creates a foundation for marine life and our shoreline.

"They also provide protection from hurricanes and large storms because they break up that wave action before it gets in close to shore. So, they're really important for that as well," said Wade.

 Florida Aquarium is working on a statewide initiative to restore a quarter of the reef by 2050, and their latest dive offers a better view.

 "I definitely saw more wildlife than I normally see on the shallow reefs, which is really hopeful for the future," said Reckenbeil.