Cynthia Lewis, director of the Keys Marine Laboratory, points to staghorn corals that were recently bleached in an ongoing, unprecedented marine heatwave. - Max Chesnes/Tampa Bay Times/TNS
When marine scientist Ian Enochs jumped into the water at Cheeca Rocks, a small reef in the Florida Keys known for vibrantly colorful corals, what he saw shook him to the core.
“Literally everything was white,” said Enochs, a research ecologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Miami. “It does not look normal at all, it’s just like a different reef.”
