Here’s the estimated price for restoring two declining coral species found in South Florida and the Caribbean: About $250 million.
How long will it take? 400 years or so (assuming all goes smoothly).
No one expected it would be easy to restore elkhorn and staghorn corals, the once-abundant, reef-building species that since the 1970s have vanished from almost all of their old range. A recovery plan just released by the National Marine Fisheries Service says the biggest current threat is climate change, a problem beyond its power to solve.
The recovery plan makes it clear that the primary threat to elkhorn and staghorn is climate change and ocean warming and ocean acidification.