“100% coral mortality” found in coral reef restoration site off Florida as ocean temperatures soar

CBS News reported on the devastating toll of Florida’s marine heat wave, including 100% coral mortality at Sombrero Reef — a Keys restoration site tended for over a decade — as NOAA raised its bleaching warning to Alert Level 2, its highest, a full month or two ahead of the usual late-summer peak. The stakes are enormous: Florida’s 350-mile reef, which has already lost 80–90% of its coral over 50 years, supports more than 71,000 jobs and $6.3 billion for the state’s economy.