More images available in original publication, see reference above. Designed to protect an extensive reef system, John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park and the adjacent Key largo National Marine Sanctuary are being ruined by too much pollution and too many people. Less than a generation later many of the state's reefs are dying, not just in the park but throughout the keys.
Some experts say the causes are part of a natural cycle, and widespread death is inevitable.
Others say the causes are unknown, but the result is still inevitable. And others warn that we are actually killing our reefs. I first dived the Florida Keys while I was a University of Florida student in the 1950s. Corals are living organisms that have created the very structure of the reefs over thousands of years. Seeing them suffer is like living with a terminally ill family member whose doctors argue over symptoms while the patient silently slips away.