The Blog

Florida’s staghorn and elkhorn corals once helped build the living reefs that protect coastlines, support fisheries, shelter marine life, and define Florida’s ocean heritage. Their functional extinction is a heartbreaking warning about what happens when climate change, pollution, and underfunded conservation collide. But this moment must also be a call to action: with fully funded coral recovery programs, science-based protections, and renewed commitment to the Endangered Species Act, Florida’s reefs can still have a fighting chance.

How many whales does it take to save a species? For the Rice’s whale, the answer may be all of them. Found only in the Gulf of Mexico, this newly recognized species is already on the edge of extinction, with just 51 estimated to remain. By studying individual whales, scientists have uncovered critical insights about how Rice’s whales feed, rest, travel, and survive in one of the most industrialized marine environments in the world. Their stories are a reminder that science, not politics, must guide decisions about endangered wildlife, and that every protection matters when extinction is this close.