Coral Castles - 1. Coral Castles

“Good afternoon.” Liebe, standing in front of her classroom, pointed at the blond man sitting on the desk by her side. “This is my dad. His name’s Taggart, but everyone calls him Tag. He’s going to help me with the picture show.”

Tag was not the only parent in the room. He waved at those he knew and at all the children, before tapping a key on his laptop, and making the television in the corner of the room come alive. The image displayed was of a colorful underwater scene with Coral Castles superimposed at the top.

“My report’s on coral reefs and how they’re in trouble even though they do a lot of good things for us.” Liebe had chosen the topic for her school year-end science class presentation.

“The Florida Barrier Reef is really, really long. It starts in the Dry Tortugas and runs all the way to Miami.” She did not need to describe either location; every kid growing up in the Florida Keys was familiar with the cluster of small islands found some seventy miles west of Key West, at the southern tip of the archipelago, and the big city to their north.

Tag tapped the keyboard again and a map of Florida, with the Barrier Reef shown as a red line, replaced the opening image.

“The reef’s in the Atlantic Ocean real close to land. My dad owns a boat, and he goes there all the time. He says it’s about six miles from shore and only fifteen to thirty feet deep.” Liebe looked up from the pages her father had corrected and printed after she had carefully typed what she wanted to say. “My dad says when I turn eight I can learn how to scuba dive so I can see them closer. Right now all I can do is snorkel above them.”

Illustration
Liebe and Tag in front of a classroom. TV and wall-mounted map of Florida in the background, laptop on a desk, and student heads in the foreground.

“There are two kinds of corals: hard corals and soft corals.” Liebe glanced at her father and nodded. Tag touched the keyboard and a new picture came on the TV.

“The ones with lots of colors on the left are soft. “ Liebe pointed at the appropriate picture on the television screen. “They can bend and many times look like plants or trees. This kind of coral doesn’t build reefs like the other ones do.”

She looked around the classroom and liked that the teacher was smiling and nodding and the other boys and girls were paying attention.

“Hard ones are the ones many people think about when they think of corals. These are the ones that build the reefs. A lot of them get their name because of their shapes. Brain corals are round and have all these squiggly lines that make them look like a brain.” Liebe did not even look at her father; he knew when to show a new picture. Instead, she glanced at the TV and saw an image of a big round coral surrounded by colorful fish.

“Another two kinds are elkhorn corals and staghorn corals. They both get their name because they look like antlers. Those are the weird-looking horns on animals like Santa’s reindeers. We don’t have elks in Florida, but my dads promised to take me to Yellowstone Park sometime so I can see them.”

Every time Liebe mentioned a different type of coral, a new picture showed up on the screen.

“The difference between those two is that elkhorn corals grow flat parts that look like a fan. Sort of like palm tree fronds. Staghorn corals grow little branches that look like fingers and they sometimes look like a tree with a lot of branches.

Illustration
Liebe standing near the television set with Tag sitting on the desk behind her. A flat-screen TV displays a large staghorn coral formation.

“Many people think the hard corals they see are an animal or plant, but those are their exo—” Liebe had trouble saying the word and turned to her father for help. Tag whispered the correct pronunciation.

“Exoskeleton. All those skeletons we see during Halloween are the bones inside people. Corals have them on the outside to protect the soft polyps.

“Those are the little, tiny animals that make the hard covering. It takes thousands and thousands of them together to create a coral and even more to make a whole reef. When you put that many in one place, it’s called a colony. It takes lots and lots of time for them to build what we see.”

When she looked at her father, he again made the picture on the TV change. It showed a coral polyp on one side and a large staghorn formation on the other.

“The picture of the polyp was taken real close so it looks big but it’s really very, very small. Their yellowy color comes from tiny algae plants that live together with them and help the coral grow by making food the polyps can eat.”

Illustration
Liebe points at the TV screen showing side-by-side pictures of a coral polyp and a staghorn coral.

“My other dad was born in Miami and my grandparents live there. Because he’s a fireman, when there’s a hurricane coming, he has to stay at the station. Firemen have to be ready to help people after the storm’s gone. I always go stay with my grandma and grandpa because my dads say it’s safer for me because my grandparents don’t live next to the water.

“My dog, Spot, always goes with me to keep me company, but I still get scared. Hurricanes can hurt the beaches, destroy houses, and even kill people if they’re outside when the big winds come.”

Liebe looked up from her report and saw a lot of the kids nodding. Everyone who lived in the Florida Keys knew how bad hurricanes could be.

“But coral reefs help protect us from storms. They’re like a wall in front of the Keys which helps slow down waves. If they weren’t there, the ocean would hit us harder and flood our houses or knock them down.

Illustration
A dark-haired man stands next to a fire truck under almost black clouds. In the background, wind-buffeted palm trees are shown bending.

“Coral reefs also help us by giving us food. All the spaces between the branches and the sand are great hiding spots for small animals. Baby fish, shrimp, lobsters, and stone crabs all stay close to the reef so bigger animals won’t swallow them.”

Liebe looked at her father and he changed the picture to show fingerling fishes swarming through a reef formation while the shadow of a large predator trails them. He also winked to let her know she was doing well.

“When the baby fish and other animals get bigger, people can catch them and eat them.” Liebe knew the kids nodding were familiar with what she was talking about. Almost everyone in the Florida Keys went fishing at some point. Even if it was by tossing a line from a bridge. She once again signaled her father to change the picture.

“Since my fathers own a boat, they take me out fishing all the time. I caught this one by myself, but Daddy had to take the scales off and the guts out.” She felt embarrassed for a moment and her cheeks flushed. “I’m not allowed to do it yet ’cause the knives are too sharp. But I’ll be able to when I’m older.” The knowing nods from many of her classmates showed she was not the only one in that position.

Illustration
Liebe, standing on the deck of a fishing boat, smiles while holding a yellowtail snapper with both hands.

“Another way coral reefs help us is by all the jobs they create. The Florida Keys are beautiful, and we have the best weather in the world. That means a lot of people like to come to visit.

“Tourists spend money in hotels, restaurants, and stores. And they pay people like my dad to take them out on their boats to go fishing, or snorkeling, or scuba diving. They like to visit the reefs.”

In a whisper, Tag asked her if she wanted the next picture, and Liebe nodded. It showed people under the water, swimming with fish, next to colorful corals.

“I have a lot of friends with parents who also have jobs because of tourists. One owns a store that sells all kinds of beach stuff like bathing suits, suntan lotion, and sunglasses. Another one works at a place for tourists to rent masks, snorkels, and diving tanks. And one sells bait for fishing or whatever they catch to restaurants. And a bunch of them work in the hotels tourists stay in and the places they go to eat at.

“They wouldn’t have those jobs if the coral reefs weren’t here to convince tourists to visit the Keys. I don’t ever want the reefs to go away.”

Illustration
A grinning Tag at his boat’s wheel surrounded by tourists also smiling and waving at the camera.

“But coral reefs are in trouble. They’re dying all over the world, not just in Florida. Many, many people don’t know they can hurt corals if they’re not careful. It happens with overfishing and with boat captains who are not careful. We should never drop a boat’s anchor where it could break pieces of coral off. It takes so long for them to grow, when a lot of parts are hurt, the reef can’t build new ones fast enough, and sometimes die.”

Tag changed the picture to show a boat’s anchor stuck on coral and a large number of broken pieces on the sand. “A friend of my dad took this picture while scuba diving. Even with laws to protect the reefs, some people are not careful or don’t care. It’s why all of us need to protect our coral castles, so they’re still around when we grow up.

“Overfishing’s bad for two reasons. One is that if some people take too many fish, there will be fewer ones for the rest of us to catch and eat. And without big fish, we don’t have little fish either. What that means is the chain of little fish eating algae and other plants, big fish eating little ones, and people eating the big ones gets broken. This is why there are limits on how many fish, and lobsters, and crabs are taken at any one time, and where we’re allowed to take them from.”

Illustration
Boats bobbing in a marina in the background. In the foreground, a sign reads Six lobsters per person per day.

“Two big dangers to coral reefs are climate change and pollution. Some people don’t believe in climate change but my dads say they’re just being silly. So we have to convince them it’s real because, even though it’ll take the adults to fix the problem, we kids can make sure our parents do something about it.

“You know how everyone last year kept saying it was so hot? My dads told me it’s been getting warmer every year for a long time. And they have to know since they’re old. They’re both like thirty.”

The teacher laughed, and Tag gave her a fake angry look. Liebe figured out they did not think thirty was old, but it was.

“Anyway, it being hotter is part of climate change. The amount of rain, where it falls, and stronger hurricanes are part of it too. All because when we burn oil, gas, and coal, the smoke pollutes the sky. But we can help slow it all down if we don’t burn all those things so much. My dads promised next time they get new trucks, they’ll be electric ones. Those don’t pollute the air the same way.”

The images accompanying her presentation flipped between Tag’s Jeep and a newer one with ELECTRIC written at the bottom.

“But other types of pollution also hurt the coral reefs. When people use too much fertilizer, some of it ends up in the ocean, and that’s not good for the corals. We can’t do anything about farmers in other parts of Florida, but we can tell our parents not to do the same with our yards.

“Garbage, like plastic bags, is also a problem. I helped clean a beach one time, and the man in charge asked me to pick up bottle caps only. There were so many, I couldn’t count all of them. Anyway, all that stuff gets in the water, and it’s really bad for the corals.

“Make sure you don’t litter, tell your parents not to do it either, and if you’re at the beach and see trash, pick it up and put it in a garbage can.”

Illustration
Liebe at the beach with Tag and her Dalmatian, Spot. Wearing gloves, she holds a trash bag in one hand and a soft drink bottle cap in the other.

“New reefs are created when lots and lots of baby polyps are carried by the water to other places. If enough of them land in the same area, a new colony starts. Sometimes, people help them by sinking stuff the baby polyps can stick themselves to. There are a bunch of old ships that have been used that way,”

The TV screen showed a picture of the USS Spiegel Grove sunk in the waters off of Key Largo.

“But reefs get hurt faster than they can get better, so another way to help fix hurt ones or create new ones is through rest oh ration.” Liebe pronounced the three syllables carefully since she had stumbled over the word while practicing.

“Broken pieces of coral are sometimes hung from metal poles stuck in the sand with smaller sticks coming out of the sides. These are called trees because they look like a trunk with branches. But they also take a long time to grow, so it’s better not to hurt corals at all.”

Illustration
Underwater scene showing marine life swimming around a metal contraption hung with coral segments.

“Because we’re little, kids can’t do a lot to help the reefs. But sometimes, doing little things is enough. Like not polluting and helping clean beaches. Like making sure our parents don’t use too much fertilizer and buy sunscreen without bad chemicals. And like talking to everyone we know about how important coral reefs are to the Florida Keys and how we all need to protect them.

“There are lots of videos on the internet showing how beautiful the reefs are. For myself, I can’t wait until I’m old enough so I can scuba, and I can visit the coral castles in person with my dads.

“Thank you.”

Illustration
Liebe bows in front of her class while in the background her father and teacher are seen applauding.

The End