Rough cactus coral is listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. SeaWorld at the Florida Coral Rescue Center, funded by the Disney Conservation Fund and the Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida, is making a difference.
What's Happening:
- The two-thousand-square-foot state-of-the-art Florida Coral Rescue Center (FCRC) is a member facility of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, Florida Reef Tract Rescue Project (AZA-FRTRP), and the largest Florida Coral Rescue facility in the country.
- This is now the home to hundreds of new cactus coral.
- Reproduction in human care is an extremely rare event, but over the past several weeks, the reproduction known as larval release has been happening.
- It is thought to be the first documented occurrence of this threatened species in human care.
- SeaWorld manages the FCRC with a team of aquarists to provide care for rescued Florida corals.
- There are 18 species of coral from the Florida Reef Tract, which is also known as Florida’s Coral Reef. There are also species listed under the Endangered Species Act.
- These corals are part of a large-scale breeding effort to produce offspring that is going to be used to restore Florida’s coral reef.
- There are more than 700 corals in their care. FCRC is working with Florida corals as permitted by the State of Florida and is crucial to the SCTLD response plan.
- Rough cactus corals are brooders, which means the embryos fertilize within the coral colony and are released as swimming larvae.
- A few days after release from the parent colony, the larvae will make their way onto hard surfaces like a small tile that FCRC aquarists have placed near them in their nursery pools.
- Wherever they attach, they will begin to grow into corals.
- For this species, it is typically from December to March.