FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Aug. 13 (UPI) -- In ocean waters off Florida, scientists and volunteers are raising plots of rare corals to repopulate depleted Florida and Caribbean reefs, experts say.
Hit hard by disease, global warming and other stresses in the past 30 years, staghorn and elkhorn corals that create reef structures supporting vast varieties of fish, sponges, lobsters and other marine creatures have declined to a few isolated patches in the waters that run from southern Florida's Palm Beach County to the islands of the Caribbean, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported Thursday.