Mystery Disease Killing Florida Corals Spurs ‘Reef-Ugee’ Mission

Thousands of Florida corals are being cut from subtropical ocean reefs to live in tanks in what researchers are calling an unprecedented rescue mission.

It might be the best chance for these “reef-ugees,” as one advocate calls them, to survive a mysterious epidemic that has plagued Florida’s offshore waters for about five years.

The state’s 360-mile-long reef tract is one of the world’s largest, and nearly all of it has been decimated by a stony coral tissue loss disease targeting about half of Florida’s 40 coral species. The disease is adding to the pressures already linked directly to ...