WEBVTT

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NICK SCHIFRIN: Coral reefs
around the world are in
growing danger, due in no

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small part to rising
temperatures connected
with climate change.

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But, in Florida and throughout
the Caribbean, there is now a
new mysterious epidemic killing

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once healthy corals.
Scientists are diving
deep to find some answers.

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And science correspondent
Miles O'Brien recently
joined them on their
mission to revive the reefs.

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MILES O'BRIEN:

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I have been scuba diving
in Florida and the
Bahamas for 35 years,

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which makes me an eyewitness
to a slow-motion disaster.

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Marine biologist Karen Neely is
also saddened by what she sees.

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KAREN NEELY, Nova Southeastern
University: I know what it's
like to go somewhere where

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you have had old friends
and they're not there
anymore. That's what
we're seeing on the reefs

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here. Over the last 20
years, there's just been
the continued loss of coral.

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MILES O'BRIEN: It's a
global problem brought on
by pollution, overfishing
and the climate crisis.

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The Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change
predicts up to 90 percent of

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tropical coral reefs will
vanish as soon as 2030 unless
drastic action is taken to limit

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greenhouse gases. Grim
as that is, here in
Florida, things are worse.

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Neely is on a mission to stop a
deadly coral epidemic decimating
reefs here and throughout the

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Caribbean. First identified
near Miami in 2014,
stony coral tissue loss
decide spreads and kills

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like wildfire. It strikes
more than 20 of the 60
or so species of coral
that live here. Mortality

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rates range from 66 to 100
percent. The iconic Pillar coral
is one of the most susceptible.

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VALERIE PAUL, Director,
Smithsonian Marine Station at
Fort Pierce: It's heartbreaking.

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It's just unbelievable.

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MILES O'BRIEN: Marine
biologist Valerie Paul
is head scientist at the
Smithsonian Marine Station

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at Fort Pierce. She's
helping lead the urgent
hunt for answers.

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VALERIE PAUL: When we started,
we didn't know anything.
We just knew it was killing

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coral tissue, right? We
know more than we did
a few years ago, but we
surely don't know enough.

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MILES O'BRIEN: Corals are
complex, fragile, and poorly
understood animals. They survive

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thanks to a mutually beneficial
or symbiotic relationship with
algae that live in coral tissue.

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In this marriage, the coral
is the homemaker and the
algae brings home the bacon,

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actually, nutrients derived
from photosynthesis.
Many of the vivid colors
of coral are actually

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created by the algae.
So, white patches are
signs disease or death.

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VALERIE PAUL: So really, this
whole piece is diseased at this
stage. This is fairly advanced

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disease on this coral.

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MILES O'BRIEN: But no
one know what is sort
of pathogen is at work.

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It could be viral or bacterial
or perhaps some combination.

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Here, they isolated a
beneficial bacterium that
fights offs the disease.

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VALERIE PAUL: We started
just testing it in the
laboratory first in various
aquarium studies with

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pieces of diseased coral
and saw that it would
slow down the disease

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or stop it entirely. So this
was like, wow, this is cool.

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MILES O'BRIEN: So they are
treating healthy corals with
probiotics applied beneath a

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weighted bag. It looks
promising, but it's still early.
Antibiotics are also working.

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Karen Neely is part of a
small team of researchers
applying amoxicillin
paste to ailing corals.

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KAREN NEELY: We can come
back in a month, and that
coral has no sign of disease,

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it's not dying anymore.
And, eventually, it
starts re growing.

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MILES O'BRIEN: Her team
from Nova Southeastern
University and others

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have collectively saved
nearly 15,000 corals.

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Still, the researchers are well
aware they're only making a
small dent in a massive problem.

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KAREN NEELY: We really
have to be quite selective.
We're figuring out,

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what can we save, what might
be OK if we can't get to it,

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and what are we going to lose
regardless, and trying to get
the most bang for the buck?

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We can't just pretend
this isn't happening and
not do anything about it,

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or the prognosis takes a
sharp turn for the worse.

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MILES O'BRIEN: At the
Florida Aquarium Coral
Conservation Center near Tampa,

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they are fighting
this disease on land.

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KERI O'NEIL, Florida Aquarium
Coral Conservation Center: So,

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this is a tank of corals
that are going out into the
ocean in a couple of weeks.

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MILES O'BRIEN: Keri O'Neil is
the senior coral scientist here.

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At first, she hoped to
participate in a massive effort
by a team of scientists to

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harvest healthy coral
from the reefs to create
an ark, a desperate move
to avoid extinctions.

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KERI O'NEIL: However, they
don't stop growing. And
if you're keeping them

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under happy conditions,
then they're just going to
keep growing and growing.

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MILES O'BRIEN: She wondered
if she could make endangered
Pillar corals happy enough

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to reproduce. Something
like that had never been
done before with Florida
corals in aquariums.

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KERI O'NEIL: So you have to get
all the seasonal cues right,
the change in temperature,

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the change in daylight,
sunrise, sunset, the moon
phase, all of these different

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cues have to be just
right in order for that
one event to occur around
the full moon of August.

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MILES O'BRIEN: The spawning
happened on their first
try in August of 2019.

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KERI O'NEIL: We were just
cheering and yelling and
calling everybody, like,
come in. We need help.

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(LAUGHTER)

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KERI O'NEIL: And it's
happened like clockwork
every year since then.

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MILES O'BRIEN: So what started
as a gene bank five years ago

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is now a huge thriving
coral breeding center.

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Keri O'Neil occasionally joins
divers from the Florida Fish and
Wildlife Conservation Commission

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as they cement their offspring
onto ailing reefs. The team
uses little bamboo teepees,

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so the young corals don't
become fish hors d'oeuvre.
So far, they are thriving,

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maybe because they're young
and strong, or maybe the worst
of the epidemic has passed.

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Eventually, O'Neil hopes they
will find the genes that make

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coral resistant and selectively
breed animals that are immune to
stony coral tissue loss disease.

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But, remember, the disease
is just one of many threats.

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KERI O'NEIL: We cannot
save coral reefs without
stopping climate change
and cleaning up our

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environment. That takes time. In
the meantime, we need to ensure
that we don't lose the diversity

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that we have now, so that we
can build back the population.
Our work here is buying us time.

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MILES O'BRIEN: When Karen
Neely swims past healthy
corals that she has treated,

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she feels the same way.

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KAREN NEELY: I definitely
don't feel like it's

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a futile effort. And I do feel
like we have to do something.

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If you like seafood,
you like coral reefs.

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If you like vacationing
in Florida, you like coral
reefs. You might not know it,

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but it's super important that
we have them, and it's pretty
problematic when we lose them.

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I think, in my lifetime, we will
either start to see the swing
back towards more healthy reefs,

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or we will see reefs continue
to decline into something
almost unrecognizable.

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MILES O'BRIEN: Imagine
that, a world without
thriving coral reefs.

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Not a pretty thought. It's
heartbreaking to watch it
happening right before my eyes.

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For the "PBS NewsHour,"
I'm Miles O'Brien 30
feet beneath the surface
at Looe Key, Florida.