Conserving Florida’s Coral Reef

With your help, we can rescue and restore Florida’s Coral Reef and share the wonders of our waters with generations to come.

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Coral Restoration Foundation

Discover Florida’s hidden treasure

Florida’s Coral Reef stretches almost 350 miles from the Dry Tortugas to the St. Lucie Inlet. It’s the only coral reef system in the continental United States and is home to over forty species of reef-building corals that provide shelter, food and breeding sites for millions of plants and animals.

Coral Restoration Foundation

Explore our reefs

See how Florida’s Coral Reef is purely and uniquely Florida

Florida’s Coral Reef is an incredible natural resource that protects our coastline and supports the economy, providing opportunities for recreation, education and medical research.

Recreation

Florida’s Coral Reef offers numerous awe-inspiring opportunities for responsible diving, boating and fishing.

Tourism

Florida’s Coral Reef and surrounding waters are a breathtaking recreational destination that drive the economy of south Florida.

Coastal Protection

Florida’s Coral Reef is a natural buffer for Florida’s shoreline, protecting human life and property by lessening the eroding power of waves. Coral reefs dissipate 97% of wave energy that would otherwise erode beaches.

Seafood

Florida’s Coral Reef provides a home to hundreds of species of finfish and shellfish, which are a source of seafood for homes, restaurants and our grocery stores.

Biomedical Research

Drugs developed from coral reef organisms are already on the market to combat caner, pain, and inflammation.

The future of Florida’s Coral Reef is being threatened

Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease, pollution, warming ocean temperatures, ocean acidification and many other threats contribute to reef degradation.

Get the Facts

**Coral Bleaching** When corals are stressed by changes in their conditions, they expel the colorful algae living in their translucent tissues, called zooxanthellae, showing their white skeleton and giving a bleached appearance.

Without continued bold and aggressive action, we may lose critical functions and benefits of the reefs

But there is hope

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection and its partners are working daily to support the reefs’ natural recovery processes through the large-scale cultivation, outplanting, and monitoring of genetically diverse, reef-building corals.