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https://www.wsj.com/science/florida-coral-reef-climate-change-heat-wave-6d5ee30b

Researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration expose corals to pulses of warm water in a ‘coral gym’ to mimic changing ocean conditions and improve the invertebrates’ resilience.

Florida’s Coral Reef Supports Fishing, Tourism and Beaches. Can Science Save It?

With booster shots, IVF and ‘coral gyms,’ researchers are deploying new technologies to climate-proof the world’s third-longest barrier reef

By Eric Niiler

| Photographs and Video by Alfonso Duran for The Wall Street Journal

Updated Nov. 18, 2023 4:27 pm ET

MIAMI—On a barrier island off the coast of Florida, Ian Enochs runs a high-tech “coral gym” where he trains the colorful invertebrates to be survivors.

Enochs and his colleagues are looking for individuals strong enough to withstand the kind of marine heat wave that threatened to wipe out Florida’s 360-mile-long coral reef this summer—an ecological disaster that also put the state’s fishing, tourism and beaches at risk.

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