As southwest Florida continues to recover from last fall’s hurricane Ian, a campaign to welcome back boating is underway. Meanwhile, efforts to save coral reef in the Keys are underway.

The Marine Industries Association of Southwest Florida & Tampa Bay has kicked off a “Welcome Back to the Water” campaign to make certain boaters know the sport is back in a part of the state that was devasted by hurricane Ian.

“So many of our marine facilities have completed major repairs and are meeting customer’s needs well,” says John Good, executive director of MIASWF. “We want that message to get out. We still have a way to go, for sure, but boating is back here full throttle.”

The campaign features a series of testimonial videos on the organization’s GoBoatingFlorida Facebook page and YouTube channel. The first video in the series featured Rob Wells of Cabbage Key & Tarpon Lodge. MIASWF is asking members to join the effort and share the videos as they are posted to help reassure boaters who may still be nervous about returning to the water.

Dealers and service providers are being urged to share the videos with customers and social media followers. New videos will be posted during the next few weeks.

Reef Restorations

Restoration and intervention methods to promote resilient coral ecosystems are pivotal to the boating industry because they “provide coastal protection for communities, habitat for fish and millions of dollars in recreation and tourism, among other benefits,” according to NOAA Fisheries. But corals are threatened by rapidly worsening environmental conditions.

Leading the effort is the National Ocean & Atmospheric Administration in conjunction with programs from major universities. NOAA announced a proposal to fund five multiyear projects under the Ruth Gates Coral Restoration Innovation Grants. The 2023 funding totals approximately $913,000 to support projects that enhance coral resilience and improve their long-term success.

These projects include funding a new project with the University of Alabama, Mote Marine Laboratory and the University of Delaware, plus, continued funding of four ongoing projects: University of Miami working to restore elkhorn coral populations in Florida; Florida International University working to find ways to make corals withstand increasing sea temperatures; and Nova Southeastern University working with the Florida Aquarium, Mote Marine Laboratory and the University of North Carolina – Wilmington to determine the optimal light in which to grow sensitive coral recruits and upscale production of diverse corals for coral reef restoration.

While there is much focus on the Southeast, the West Coast is also recommended for additional funding. The University of Southern California, working with the Mote Marine Laboratory, is continuing to quantify the thermal tolerance of nursery-reared elkhorn corals and identify key thermal resilience traits.

This effort has improved our understanding of deep-sea corals and sponges off California, Oregon and Washington, particularly within the five West Coast national marine sanctuaries.

Vibrant deep-sea coral and sponge communities make their home across a diversity of seafloor features, such as seamounts, basins and canyons. Deep-sea corals and sponges are important to their surrounding ecological communities.

Many have been designated essential fish habitat because they are vital to the health of recreational and commercial fisheries. Data from such studies, for example, played a key role in opening rockfish angling under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, our primary law that governs good conservation policies to reduce overfishing in federal waters.

A tip of the cap to NOAA for recommending more than $910,000 for ongoing projects that can benefit fishing going forward.