Keys' coral reef faces more trouble

From a story by Marc Caputo in the Miami Herald:

TALLAHASSEE -- Boat run-agrounds are up nearly 62 percent. Fragile coral species haven't recovered from serious diseases. And polluting nutrients are choking out some sea grasses.

The 10th annual status report of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary shows that the aquatic life is in trouble in the world's third-largest barrier coral reef -- despite a decade of protection plans and regulations designed to save it.

And though the report indicates that fish populations are rebounding in a no-fishing zone and the reef's health isn't as severely declining as in the past, things could get far worse because of something no regulation can stop right now: global warming.

Warmer and warmer waters make it tougher and tougher for the tiny clustering coral animals to live.

''Corals are the canary, the canary in the coal mine. And they have shown us for some time that we have elevated sea surface temperatures,'' Billy Causey, the director of marine sanctuaries in the Southeast, told Gov. Charlie Crist and the Cabinet before they voted to accept the sanctuary plan Tuesday.