Growing coral to save the Florida reefs

Mark Potter Correspondent • E-mail

TAVERNIER, Fla. - About a mile offshore, with only a light west wind, and a blistering sun, the heat of day came on fast, as if to convince the marine researchers to hurry and get in the water.

First overboard, in a full wetsuit and strapped to an old gray scuba-tank, was Ken Nedimyer, who makes his living collecting tropical fish and growing aquarium live-rock, which he sells on the Internet.

On this trip, though, he is chasing his passion, which is much bigger than his job, if not nearly as lucrative. Nedimyer is determined to help save the dying reefs of the Florida Keys, and has given it years of his own free time.

"It makes you feel good," he said. "Making a difference, and making a positive contribution is worth more than a lot of money."

One man's concern
Since childhood, Nedimyer has been diving the colorful reefs off the Florida Keys. Over the years, he became increasingly upset by what he was witnessing — a dramatic decline in the size and number of living underwater coral structures.

"I used to see these corals everywhere, huge thickets that covered acres," he said.  "And now I go to some of those patch reefs, and there's just one little spindly colony left."

Scientists say it's a serious problem affecting marine ecosystems around the world.

At the Mote Tropical Research Lab on Summerland Key, Florida, Executive Director Dave Vaughn said that in the last three decades, 25 percent of the world's corals have been lost, primarily because of rising sea temperatures and increased carbon dioxide levels caused by global warming.

The problem, he says, is accelerating at an alarming rate. "In the 50 years of our generation we may lose half the world's corals on our watch."

An inspiring 4-H project
For Nedimyer, a potential solution for some of the problem revealed itself five years ago, when he noticed that tiny staghorn corals were beginning to grow on his underwater aquarium rock collection. It was an interesting discovery, because the elegant staghorns had virtually disappeared in the Keys.

At first, Nedimyer saw this as an economic windfall for his aquarium-supply business.  "I thought this is neat. I was initially thinking of it as a way to make more money." 

But, after thinking about it some more, and with prodding from his then 14-year-old daughter, Kelly, Nedimyer realized there was a more urgent need elsewhere.

"Kelly and I started thinking, you know, there's just a whole lot better use for that coral right down here in the Keys, and so we haven't sold any of it on the commercial market."

Instead, their first venture was to make it the focus of Kelly's 4-H project.  "4-H, you think of growing pigs, cows and chickens," Nedimyer laughs.  "We said, we'll grow coral."

Underwater nurseries
From that small beginning, a plan for planting underwater staghorn coral nurseries was devised, and requisite licenses were obtained.  The ultimate goal was to replenish a few dying reefs.

Nedimyer and his daughter experimented with different kinds a glue, and by messy trial and error finally figured out how to attach tiny staghorn tips to rock platforms stretched out over the ocean floor.

Because staghorns can grow very quickly — double or triple in size every year — the first five small colonies have now grown to hundreds of much larger staghorn groups nestled in the waters off Tavernier Key. Some of them were planted in an area of Molasses Reef where in 1984 the freighter Wellwood ran hard aground and cut a swath through the delicate coral beds.

Finishing up a recent scuba dive, and grabbing for the ladder of his boat, Nedimyer was asked how everything looked down below on his underwater coral farms.

"They look great," he boasted. "The corals are beautiful, some of them have really grown a lot.

His biggest hope is that others will follow his lead, because he believes coral replanting can work almost anywhere.

"I think it can be replicated up and down the Keys, and really throughout the Caribbean."

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