Off U.S. 1 in the Middle Florida Keys is a common-looking white, two-story building. To the right of it is a gate and a couple smaller structures.
Vacationers driving past this spot, on their way to Key West, may not realize all the work that goes on beyond that gate to keep the attractions they're seeking alive.
The Keys Marine Lab is University of South Florida's southernmost campus. It’s operated by the Florida Institute of Oceanography, a consortium of 34 universities, institutions, and state agencies.
Not only is it a teaching facility, it’s also used by multiple organizations to restore coral.
In 2023, the lab was full of scientists from all over bringing corals from warming offshore nurseries into temperature-controlled tanks there during an historic bleaching event. Since then, the lab has been expanding as corals are increasingly threatened by heat.
ALSO READ: How Florida's coral researchers are adapting to extreme heat amid another El Niño warming event
"We have access to Florida Bay right here in our backyard,” said lab director Cindy Lewis, after opening the gate to reveal blue, sparkling water ahead.
"We do have a fleet of boats that we captain … We go under a bridge and around the corner, and we're in the Atlantic Ocean, so we have everything available right here,” she said.
Near the water are two dome metal structures covered in black mesh.
"This is seawater system number one,” she said. It’s one of four "wet labs" on the property. Filling the space are 20 rectangular tubs with temperature-controlled seawater.
Just enough sunlight seeps through the fabric above to mimic the shade of being 25 feet underwater.
"This guy is doing much better,” Lewis said peeking into one of the tubs, where a piece of golden-brown Elkhorn coral is submerged by a string.
"It had been through some thermal stress from the warm waters that we had up until the end of June. So, he's just temporarily here till maybe October, November,” she said.
This species of branching coral became functionally extinct after 2023.
"Many of the corals didn't just bleach. The water was so hot that their tissue literally sloughed off, and they just died,” Lewis said.
She described a scramble at the lab during that time with up to 50 scientists working shoulder-to-shoulder in 95-degree heat trying to save their corals.
"It was like a coral mass unit here, triaging which corals were alive, which ones were dead, cutting off the dead part, saving the live part,” she said.
Lewis had never seen anything like it in her 25 years of diving these reefs.
One of the lab’s partners, Coral Restoration Foundation, moved 4,500 corals, about 10% of their stock, to land-based tanks, like those at Keys Marine Lab in 2023.
"From mid-August all the way to December, we were taking care of these corals at Keys Marine Lab,” said CRF’s Phanor Montoya-Maya, adding that the relationship didn't stop there.
"We found a good location to propagate corals on land when the weather wasn't good to do it in the water,” he said.
By “propagate,” he means multiply the coral supply.
A lot of that is done here at Keys Marine Lab - breaking off a piece of parent corals, cutting them into smaller pieces, and fostering their individual growth. They'll eventually move to a nursery and ultimately the wild reef.
"We need these reefs here for the economy of Florida and for the rest of the country. Everybody loves to come to Florida and vacation. We'd like to have reefs for them to visit,” said Cindy Lewis.
After 2023, she said the state paid for USF’s fourth wet lab to increase their rescue capacity when the ocean gets too hot again.
"It's ready to go. It has its own heater/chiller to maintain temperatures here. It has its own system of reservoirs for re-circulating water. We're just standing ready, waiting,” Lewis said.
But there's a lot more going on here besides vital coral restoration, like seagrass, sponge, and shark research.
The lab is raising funds to grow the facility with more dorms, classrooms, labs … even a community engagement center so that anyone can pull off U.S. 1 and come check out what's really going on in that sparkling, blue water.
