Tampa Bay’s hottest nursery isn’t at Tampa General or Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital. It’s at The Florida Aquarium Coral Conservation and Research Center in Apollo Beach, where thousands of budding corals grow inch by inch in sloshing, buzzing, giant fish tank-stuffed laboratories.

This week, 9,000 of its prized babies flew the nest (sans stork) — i.e. were driven in coolers to their new homes at The Reef Institute and Reef Renewal USA. It’s the first major transfer accomplished with multiple partners through Florida’s Coral Reef Restoration and Recovery Initiative, said Keri O’Neil, The Florida Aquarium Coral Conservation Program Director.

Over the past several years, Florida’s celebrated reefs have been decimated by bleaching events — to the point where more than 25 coral species are listed as threatened or endangered. The goal of the program is to restore at least 25% of Florida’s Coral Reef by 2050.

The brood of great star corals, boulder brain corals, symmetrical brain corals, and grooved brain corals will grow up at the new sites, before being planted in the next six or seven months within the Keys. Once rooted in, they’ll strengthen and diversify the struggling reefs for years to come.

Spawned and dutifully cared for at the center, the corals are genetically mixed as can be, O’Neil said. Which means they’ll better “adapt to multiple stressors in the future.” Like extreme heat and cold snaps.

O’Neil is hopeful about efforts so far. Right now, the center is able to spawn corals every year, consistently producing millions of larvae.

“I think that we finally can prevent extinction with corals,” she said. “This is a given. We can move them onto land, we can keep them happy and healthy, and we can prevent extinction... And we've actually made so much progress just in the last five to 10 years that I do believe that we can breed a resilient stock of corals.”

But this is only phase one, O’Neil explained. Phase two and three still need state funding support, and it takes a minimum of $9.5 million a year just to keep the program running.

“To keep our corals alive," she said.

The Aquarium’s future expansion plans will help share this work with the community, O’Neil said. One day, folks will be able to peer into the laboratories from a viewing deck — instead of just while scuba diving or snorkeling — to see some of the Elkhorn coral colonies. To understand that coral is an animal.

“It's hard to feel inspired to protect something that you can't even really wrap your head around what it is”, she said. “ And corals are one of those things. They don't have eyeballs. They're not super charismatic.”

But maybe once people put eyeballs on the Aquarium's giant ancient Elkhorn coral colony, O'Neil added, they might feel inclined to protect them.

What can you do? Here’s O'Neil's tips:

Support state initiatives to fund this work.
If you’re scuba dive certified, you can sign up to help plant juvenile corals through I. CARE.
Lower your carbon footprint.