Key West Coral Restoration

On Monday a group with the Mote Marine Tropical Research Lab planted 200 live coral fragments at Fort Zachary Taylor state park. It’s an effort to restore depleted reefs and create an educational public snorkel park. Scientists at the research lab are using a revolutionary technique to form new coral heads. It’s called re-skinning which enables fragments of brain, star and boulder corals to fuse together. The coral are about the size of a golf ball when planted. After one or two years they form a coral head the size of a dinner plate.