Florida Keys National Marine SanctuaryThe 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 Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, designated on December 28, 1990, was the ninth national marine sanctuary to be established.
John Pennekamp Coral Reef State ParkJohn Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park is a Florida State Park located on Key Largo in Florida. It includes around 70 square nautical miles (240 km; 93 sq mi) of adjacent Atlantic Ocean waters. The park is roughly 25 miles (40 km) long and extends 3 miles (4.8 km) into the Atlantic Ocean along the prominent Hawk Channel passage. It was the first underwater park in the United States. The park was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 14, 1972.
Brain coralBrain coral is a common name given to various corals in the familiesMussidae and Merulinidae, so called due to their generally spheroid shape and grooved surface, which resembles a brain. Each head of coral is formed by a colony of genetically identical polyps which secrete a hard skeleton of calcium carbonate; this makes them important coral reef builders like other stony corals in the orderScleractinia.
Florida KeysThe Florida Keys are a coralcayarchipelago off the southern coast of Florida, forming the southernmost part of the continental United States. They begin at the southeastern coast of the Florida peninsula, about 15 miles (24 km) south of Miami and extend in an arc south-southwest and then westward to Key West, the westernmost of the inhabited islands, and on to the uninhabited Dry Tortugas.
Hen and Chickens (reef)Hen and Chickens is a shallow coral reef located within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. For a while in the 20th century it was marked by the Hen and Chickens Shoal Light. It lies to the southeast of Plantation Key. This reef lies within a Sanctuary Preservation Area (SPA).
Coral reefOutcrop of rock in the sea formed by the growth and deposit of stony coral skeletonsBiodiversity in a coral reefA coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. Coral belongs to the classAnthozoa in the animal phylumCnidaria, which includes sea anemones and jellyfish.
Caribbean SeaThe Caribbean Sea is a sea of the North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea.
Marquesas KeysThe Marquesas Keys form an uninhabited island group about 20 miles (32 km) west of Key West, four miles (6 km) in diameter, and largely covered by mangrove forest. They are an unincorporated area of Monroe County, Florida, and belong to the Lower Keys Census County Division. They are protected as part of the Key West National Wildlife Refuge. The Marquesas were used for target practice by the military as recently as 1980.
Soldier KeySoldier Key is an island in Biscayne National Park in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It is located between Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, about three miles north of the Ragged Keys, five miles south of Cape Florida on Key Biscayne, seven-and-a-half miles east of the mainland and three miles west of Fowey Rocks. It lies on the Safety Valve, a sand bar that separates Biscayne Bay from the Atlantic Ocean and moderates storm surges into the bay.
ScleractiniaScleractinia, also called stony corals or hard corals, are marine animals in the phylum Cnidaria that build themselves a hard skeleton. The individual animals are known as polyps and have a cylindrical body crowned by an oral disc in which a mouth is fringed with tentacles. Although some species are solitary, most are colonial. The founding polyp settles and starts to secrete calcium carbonate to protect its soft body.
Fowey Rocks LightFowey Rocks Light is located seven miles southeast of Cape Florida on Key Biscayne. The lighthouse was completed in 1878, replacing the Cape Florida Light. It was automated on May 7, 1975, and as of 2021 is still in operation. The structure is cast iron, with a screw-pile foundation, a platform and a skeletal tower. The light is 110 feet above the water. The tower framework is painted brown, while the dwelling and enclosed circular stair to the lantern are painted white.
OctocoralliaOctocorallia, along with Hexacorallia, is one of the two extant classes of Anthozoa. It comprises over 3,000 species of marine and brackish animals consisting of colonial polyps with eight-fold symmetry, commonly referred to informally as "soft corals". It was previously known by the now-unaccepted scientific names Alcyonacea and Gorgonacea, both deprecated c. 2022, and by the also deprecated name of Alcyonaria, in earlier times.*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.