Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
| Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary | |
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Florida Keys NMS
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| Location | Florida Keys, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 24°41′N 81°14′W / 24.68°N 81.24°WCoordinates: 24°41′N 81°14′W / 24.68°N 81.24°W |
| Area | 2,800 sq mi (7,300 km2) |
| Established | 1990 |
| Governing body | NOAA National Ocean Service |
| http://floridakeys.noaa.gov/ | |
The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary is a U.S. National Marine Sanctuary in the Florida Keys. It includes the Florida Reef, the only barrier coral reef in North America and the third-largest coral barrier reef in the world. It also has extensive mangrove forest and seagrass fields. The marine sanctuary includes a 2,800 square nautical mile (9,600 km²) area surrounding the Keys and reaching into the Atlantic Ocean, Florida Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. The sanctuary was established in 1990.
Covering much of the ocean floor are beds of seagrass that are of vital importance to the coral reef ecosystem. It is the largest known seagrass bed in the world.
Population growth and urban development may impact the health of coral reefs. Development activities may cause erosion resulting in the runoff of sediments which eventually reach the coral reefs. Storm water runoff may carry fertilizers into the ocean causing damage to the coral reefs, and an increase of nutrient concentrations in the reef may cause an increase of algae which may smother the corals. Sizable foreign objects such as sunken boats and planes provide rich micro-sanctuaries for a plethora of sea life that otherwise would not exist.
The harvest of resources from the sea is ever growing. Overfishing has changed the ecological dynamics of marine communities allowing some organisms to dominate reefs that were once controlled by large reef fish populations.
Tourism dollars help to fund scientific research and environmental remediation activities. Tourism may contribute to reef damage. Divers and snorkelers may harm the corals by touching the polyps, and boats transporting tourists to the reef may damage it by dragging anchors.
One of the Florida Keys’ most ecologically damaging invasive species is the lionfish. First discovered as an introduced species in 2009, the lionfish population affects the original flora and fauna of the Florida Keys in three major ways. The lionfish has an appetite for native fish and crustaceans is able to spawn year-round. Originating in the Pacific Ocean, the lionfish has no known predator in the Atlantic Ocean. The lack of natural predators to control the lionfish population allows the lionfish population to grow to disruptive numbers. Lionfish are predators of juvenile fish, such as commercially important grouper and snapper, as well as juvenile parrotfish, which graze on algae in coral reefs, preventing the algae from overgrowing and killing corals. The lionfish’s dietary consumption of native species of the Florida Keys not only affects the species diversity of the Florida Keys, but also causes detriment to the environment due to a decrease in fish who help maintain the coral reefs. The regular spawning of the lionfish further impacts the environment of the Florida Keys; which therefore always maintains a stable reproductive population. A female lionfish can produce 30,000 to 40,000 eggs every few days; lionfish become sexually mature by the time they are a year old. The regular spawning of the lionfish creates a constant pressure on the Florida Keys ecosystem.
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Wikipedia