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I.CARE, Mote Marine Laboratories, the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation and Bud N’ Mary’s Marina are combining efforts to create a land-based coral nursery in Islamorada.

ISLAMORADA — For initiating community efforts and engaging citizen scientists to restore Islamorada’s reefs, Key Dives owner and Islamorada Conservation and Restoration Education (I.CARE) founder Mike Goldberg is being honored as a “Sea Hero” by Scuba Diving, a PADI magazine.

Goldberg was chosen for his resolve to help the local reefs.

“Mike [Goldberg] was chosen because he has quietly committed to the health of our oceans for years. We became aware of him as other shops in the Keys and elsewhere started to emulate his behavior and he was nominated by multiple staff members,” said Mary Frances Emmons, editor-in-chief of Scuba Diving. “We are proud of these awards, and Mike really exemplifies what we look for in a Sea Hero and models behaviors we’d love to see all dive shops adopt.”

Goldberg, who has operated his own dive shop since 2004, has removed 5 tons of marine debris from the ocean since Hurricane Irma, made and distributed 5,000 reusable grocery bags and hosted an annual wetsuit recycling program as well as monthly Coral Restoration Foundation dive trips, among other accomplishments.

It’s his fond memories of Volkswagon Beetle-sized brain corals and staghorn coral fields that stirs him to action, he said.

“Seeing first-hand the degradation of the coral reef tract is awful. It’s personal for me. I get very emotional when I think about what happened to our reef. It’s a sad situation to see a loss of something that I’ve held so dear to my heart. That’s why I’m doing this,” he said.

Goldberg was referring to his biggest endeavor yet, I.CARE, which he co-founded last year with marine biologist Kylie Smith. The program, a partnership with Mote Marine Laboratories and the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, aims to create a coral nursery at Bud N’ Mary’s Marina and outplant nursery-raised coral along the reefs off Islamorada.

“Our staff is proud to be a part of this community effort,” Goldberg said. “We’ve spent the last 18 months carefully planning all the components to this project and we started raising money for the program this last June.”

In its initial year, Key Dives donated 2% of gross receipts to conservation organizations, which totaled just under $20,000.

Key Dives contributes $2 to I.CARES for every diver aboard. Three other local dive shops also participate in the program: Islamorada Dive Center, Forever Young Charters and Conch Republic Divers.

Several local hotels have pledged $.50 to $1.00 for every room booked, according to Goldberg.

The organization has set a goal to raise $200,000.

“Every dollar will go directly toward coral conservation efforts. Success of the county’s tourism and fisheries is tied directly to our reef. We have taken some steps backwards because of COVID-19, but by September, we should be able to start outplanting corals and by next year 2021, we will definitely obtain our objective,” Goldberg said.

Key Dives is tentatively planning on booking coral outplanting citizen scientist trips in September.

Mote Marine Laboratories will provide 200 fragments of in-situ grown, or field-grown staghorn, and up to 100 each of nursery-grown mountainous star coral, great star coral and knobby brain coral per month, according to Allison Delashmit, Mote Marine Laboratory community relations and communications manager.

“I’m not sure how many genotypes just yet, but it’s safe to assume there will be many for diversity. The ex-situ coral will come from Mote’s land-based nursery in Summerland Key until the nursery is completed in Islamorada,” she said.

Regarding Goldberg’s efforts, Delashmit said, “If the world had more Mike Goldbergs in it, the world would be a better place. Thank goodness he’s on the coral reef’s side. I have little doubt that he will make a difference for the reefs in Islamorada. His passion and resolve is inspiring, and we at Mote look forward to a long lasting partnership.”

Goldberg deflects such praise, saying no one is more dedicated to conserving Florida’s coral reefs than his I.CARE founding partner, Smith, who is securing a research permit from NOAA for the nursery project.

“Hopefully by September, we’ll be able to start outplanting, but there may be an additional delay due to coral bleaching,” Smith said.

“NOAA has a coral bleach spot network. They can look at temperatures now and forecast them in the future. It’s not only how hot the water gets, it’s how long it stays that warm. It’s currently around 90 degrees and bleaching usually happens late summer or early fall. The last thing we want to do is take corals, add them to a brand new environment which can already be stressful and then add a bleaching event on top of that.”

The research permit will allow up to 6,000 outplants per year, Smith said.

“We are anticipating 60 coral outplants per trip and we will monitor the corals one week after for parrotfish predation, do a one month check, and then once a year for three years at a minimum,” she explained.

“We will build out a site, so we are going to revisit the same site multiple times. Scrubbing competitive algae and removing coral eating snails is part of the work as well.”

Smith is hopeful that such intensified monitoring and maintenance of the corals will boost their survival rate.

“This is an absolute dream come true. I can’t wait to get started,” she said.

The Sea Heroes program is sponsored by Scuba Diving magazine and Seiko Watches. Seven Sea Heroes are selected each year, receive a Seiko Prospex SRPE05 watch and are profiled in the magazine.

For more information about I.CARE, visit icareaboutcoral.org or email icareaboutcoral@gmail.com.

tjava@keysnews.com

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