Rising Ocean Temperatures Threaten Florida's Coral Reef – New York Times
"Last year was a particularly bad outbreak," said Tyler Smith, a coral biologist at the University of the Virgin Islands. "We lost anywhere from 70 to 100 percent of our coral to bleaching."
Florida was somewhat spared in that outbreak, only because the mighty swirl of Hurricane Wilma dragged cooler, life-saving water into the region.
Not all the news is bad. Mr. Donahue said that, with rising temperatures, scientists have seen fresh stands of elkhorn and staghorn off Broward County, Fla., far north of the Keys, in waters where such coral would have never been seen two decades ago.