shallow dives in SE Florida or Keys

[caruso]

I've been diving in FL for quite a long time and continue to dive frequently despite my advanced age

Your profile states your age to be 19?

 

[archman]

Second both Blue Heron Bridge and Lauderdale by the Sea. They are both enormously popular, so much that local dive shops should carry plastic dive site maps for both locations. The two sites have very different pro's and con's. But if its live coral that you want to see, then that means Lauderdale.

 

[tomfcrist]

I hasn't decimated the reefs yet. To my eyes physical damage from touching/standing on/anchoring on corals is the threat that's readily apparent. The reefs in the keys look pretty healthy to me.

As someone who has been diving in the keys for a couple decades, the reefs are in horrible shape. All of them. Not just the touristy dive spots. Years ago there was some damage on the touristy reefs, but the patch reefs were flourishing. Not so much now.
It’s partly disease, partly bleaching events, partly hurricane damage...etc. I don’t think it’s just one thing causing what we see today.

 

[archman]

Yeah, I have been telling my biology students that if they want to see live coral reefs, they better do it within the next few years. And if they want to see live corals in Florida, they might want to do it right now. The latest stony coral disease is so catastrophic that the government agencies have been literally pulling wild corals out of the water and placing them into quarantined aquaria all over the U.S. as a last ditch "Ark" if everything goes down the toilet. It's so bad that Karen Neely at NOVA has dive teams running around smearing individual wild corals with an antibiotic cream shot out of a glue gun. Individual corals with a glue gun. And it only has a 60% success rate, tops. Wow.

Here's a nice general new spiel highlighting just one on the new coral "Ark" facilities being set up across the country.
Coral Rescue Project Aims to Protect, Preserve Reefs

 

[FullThrottle]

Your profile states your age to be 19?

Yeah, that's not right.

 

[FullThrottle]

As someone who has been diving in the keys for a couple decades, the reefs are in horrible shape. All of them. Not just the touristy dive spots. Years ago there was some damage on the touristy reefs, but the patch reefs were flourishing. Not so much now.
It’s partly disease, partly bleaching events, partly hurricane damage...etc. I don’t think it’s just one thing causing what we see today.

I disagree. I haven't seen any such thing. No bleaching, no obvious evidence of disease. And I'm certain I've been diving more often, more extensively, and for a much longer time than you in the keys. I will bet that this disease runs it's course and subsides, which is the normal course of such things.

 

[FullThrottle]

Yeah, I have been telling my biology students that if they want to see live coral reefs, they better do it within the next few years. And if they want to see live corals in Florida, they might want to do it right now. The latest stony coral disease is so catastrophic that the government agencies have been literally pulling wild corals out of the water and placing them into quarantined aquaria all over the U.S. as a last ditch "Ark" if everything goes down the toilet. It's so bad that Karen Neely at NOVA has dive teams running around smearing individual wild corals with an antibiotic cream shot out of a glue gun. Individual corals with a glue gun. And it only has a 60% success rate, tops. Wow.

Here's a nice general new spiel highlighting just one on the new coral "Ark" facilities being set up across the country.
Coral Rescue Project Aims to Protect, Preserve Reefs

How is it that such a devastating disease exists, and yet we still have coral reefs? While an "ark" might be a good idea just in case, I don't think I'd be writing off Florida's reefs quite yet. This disease is just another variable in the ecosystem. Organisms boom and bust. It will subside.
Did you know that a while back there was a disease that wiped out 90% of the Caribbean basin's long spined sea urchins, and as a result some reefs were inundated with algae? Well the disease ran it's course, the urchins returned, the algae got cleaned up, and the reefs survived.

 

[tomfcrist]

I haven't seen any such thing.

Well then you have vision issues. The reefs are in horrible shape and bleaching has been happening. If you need evidence to back that up....there’s this thing called Google, and there are plenty of science based peer reviewed articles for you to choose from.

If you have seen no evidence of reef decline or bleaching in the keys, then you haven’t been diving there as much...nor for as long as you seem to claim.

 

[FullThrottle]

Well then you have vision issues. The reefs are in horrible shape and bleaching has been happening. If you need evidence to back that up....there’s this thing called Google, and there are plenty of science based peer reviewed articles for you to choose from.

If you have seen no evidence of reef decline or bleaching in the keys, then you haven’t been diving there as much...nor for as long as you seem to claim.

I trust my eyes quite a bit more than the interwebs.

 

[Kharon]

Well then you have vision issues. The reefs are in horrible shape and bleaching has been happening. If you need evidence to back that up....there’s this thing called Google,

And as everyone knows, they can't put anything on the internet that isn't true.

===> Ignore