Florida - Tuesday July 2, 2024: Scientists are urging divers, recreational charters, residents and visitors exploring the waters of South Florida to look for an invasive soft coral species that has been reported on the surrounding shores of Cuba.
The invasive pulse corals, a species within the Xeniidae family, are native to the Indo-Pacific and the Red seas. Several species of pulse corals have been discovered growing outside their native range into Hawaii, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and the latest Cuba. Pulse corals reproduce rapidly, including asexually by fragmentation, and can overgrow coral reefs and seagrass meadows, with potentially devastating impacts.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has partnered with the University of Florida and other federal and state agencies to encourage people who believe they have spotted the invasive soft coral in Florida waters to report their sightings through the USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species website.
For more information, please see attached news release. For an interview with the researchers, please reach out to me or Lourdes Mederos at rodriguezl@ufl.edu.