Environment

Scientists Race to Save Coral in Miami

A group of scientists is in Biscayne Bay on an urgent mission to save as many corals as it can before the marine creatures are destroyed as part of an underwater excavation of Miami’s shipping channel. The channel — set to be deepened Saturday — is home to a living coral reef.

Diving with hammer and chisel in hand, about 500 corals have been carefully removed in a series of documented dives. “We’re removing corals from the third and the second reef tract, and we are transplanting them to an artificial reef that is about a mile south,” said the scientists. “Corals kind of create the foundation of this kind of pyramid ecosystem and really build the foundation of all the fisheries that we depend on.”