Dozens of residents gathered at the Blake Library in Martin County to fight for the Oculina Bank, a rare deep-water coral reef located just off the coast of Fort Pierce. The community meeting came after a federally appointed council voted to roll back longstanding protections for the reef, which is found nowhere else on Earth. The reef thrives hundreds of feet below the surface in deep, dark waters and provides habitat for more than 2,000 marine species.
Scientists warn that reopening parts of the reef to shrimp trawling could destroy what remains of an ecosystem that has already lost as much as 90 percent of its coral to trawling before federal protections were enacted decades ago. Dr. Grant Gilmore, a scientist who has dived the reef, told attendees that fish depend on the coral for habitat and food. Mark Perry, Executive Director of the Florida Oceanographic Society, stressed that corals worldwide are in trouble and called for protecting what remains.
The proposals to reopen sections of the Oculina Bank followed a Trump Executive order issued in April 2025 that directed eight regional fishing councils to find ways to reinvigorate fishing industries. Bob Zales, executive director of the Southeastern Fishing Association and a generational shrimper, argues that reopening access is essential for the struggling rock shrimp industry, which he says is teetering on the brink of extinction. Council data shows rock shrimp trips have plummeted from over 700 per year in the mid-1990s to under 100 since 2010, with the number of active rock shrimpers dropping from 144 in 1996 to less than 30.
Jim Moir, speaking at the gathering, emphasized that an overwhelming majority of people oppose reopening the reef to trawling. The federal agency is now preparing its final ruling on whether to lift protections that scientists say are crucial for the survival of this unique coral ecosystem and the thousands of marine species that depend on it.