Save the Oculina Bank
Oculina varicosa along the east coast of Florida. Credit: John Reed/HBOI
Overview
A one-of-a-kind underwater landscape needs your help.
Off Florida’s Atlantic Coast lies one of the world’s rarest marine ecosystems: the Oculina Bank. This is the only known place on Earth where deep-sea Oculina varicosa coral — commonly known as ivory tree or ivory bush coral — forms extensive reef structures.
Oceana is fighting to protect this fragile ecosystem from destructive bottom trawling, a form of fishing where nets are dragged along the seafloor — and we need your help.
Where is the Oculina Bank?
The Oculina Bank is located between 15 and 45 miles off the eastern coast of Florida, stretching about 100 miles from Cape Canaveral in the north to Ft. Pierce in the south. Unlike the coral barrier reefs found around the Florida Keys, this is a deep-water reef found approximately 200 to 300 feet below the surface.
What Are Ivory Tree Coral?
Ivory tree coral is a deep-water species that thrives in a cold, dark environment. While shallow-water coral typically is covered in colorful algae, the lack of sunlight at deeper depths prevents algal growth, which in turn causes the white color. Ivory tree coral grows very slowly — around 1–2 centimeters a year — but given time, its tree-like branches can create thousand-year-old mounds that form pinnacles and ridges that stretch up to 100 feet from the ocean floor, as they do in the Oculina Bank.
Why the Oculina Bank is Worth Protecting
In addition to being the only known extensive deep-water reef built by Oculina varicosa, the Oculina Bank is an essential part of the Florida coast’s diverse ocean ecosystem, and a single 12-inch coral can be home to up to 2,000 animals! The ancient reef is key to the area’s commercial and recreational fishing industry by providing the spawning and nursery grounds for fish including sea bass, grouper, snapper, and sharks, along with crabs, shrimp and other ocean life.
Threats to the Oculina Bank
The Oculina Bank was a popular destination for commercial fishers up until the 1980s, when scientists realized that years of destructive fishing practices — particularly from shrimp and other bottom-trawl fisheries that drag weighted nets along the seafloor — had destroyed as much as 90% of the reef.
In 1984, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries and the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council designated the Oculina Bank as a Habitat Area of Particular Concern (HAPC), leading to restrictions on destructive bottom-tending fishing gear. That protected area was expanded in 2015.
Thanks to decades of conservation, the remaining reefs have been protected from the most damaging fishing practices. Now, those hard-won protections could be undone.
In 2026, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council voted to open a 14 sq nautical mile area of the northeastern Oculina Bank to bottom trawling. This action by the council could have long-term impacts on this globally unique habitat.
Coral and fisheries experts agree that this amendment threatens the Oculina reef. Trawl nets dragged on the seafloor can crush and destroy coral formations. Sediments stirred by trawling can smother corals, interfere with their ability to feed, and prevent new corals from growing in the region. The council’s own Coral Advisory Panel recommended that fishery managers create a larger buffer zone between trawling areas and living coral habitat than what the council approved. The council’s proposal to allow shrimp trawling in this area is now with NOAA Fisheries for review before the agency decides whether to approve and implement it.
Oceana is Working to Protect the Oculina Bank
Oceana has worked for decades to safeguard deep-sea coral habitat in the United States, including through the designation of HAPC, a specific conservation measure under the Magnuson Stevens Act designed to protect rare and sensitive habitat areas from potential impacts from human activities.
Throughout the council process, Oceana urged the government to keep existing protections in place for the entire Oculina Habitat Area of Particular Concern. Oceana continues to fight for science-based protections that protect the Oculina Bank for future generations. These slow-growing, deep sea corals are rare and are at risk.
Help Protect the Oculina Bank
NOAA Fisheries is now reviewing the council’s amendment to decide whether to approve and implement it. This amendment would allow shrimp trawls in a 14 square nautical mile portion of the protected Oculina Bank. Sediments from these trawls could smother corals, interfering with their ability to feed and preventing new corals from being established.
Protecting habitats from destructive fishing practices such as bottom trawling is crucial to ensure our oceans thrive. If this amendment is approved, the decades of conservation efforts and hard-won protections for this fragile ecosystem could be lost.
Sign up to receive updates on the federal review process, Oceana’s efforts to defend this extraordinary coral ecosystem, and opportunities to take action when your voice can make a difference.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Can you fish the Oculina Banks?
A: To protect the fragile deep sea coral reef, the only fishing gear allowed within the Oculina Habitat Area of Protected Concern is fishing gear that does not touch the seafloor. Bottom longlines, bottom trawls, pots, and traps are prohibited, and vessels may not use anchors or chains within the protected area. The South Atlantic Fishery Management Councils voted to approve opening up portions of the Oculina Habitat Area of Particular Concern to shrimp trawlers that fish with bottom trawl gear. Bottom trawl fishing drags nets along the seafloor, catching fish and crushing corals in their path.
Q: What do ivory tree coral eat?
A: Unlike shallow-water corals that rely on sunlight, ivory tree coral (Oculina varicosa) lives in the deep, dark waters of the Oculina Bank, where sunlight cannot reach. Instead, ivory tree corals capture plankton and other organic particles from the water.
Q: Why are ivory tree coral a keystone species?
A: Keystone species play a key role in the survival of an ecosystem. Ivory tree coral is considered a keystone species because it provides essential habitat and shelter for so many animals and organisms. Other examples of keystone species in the ocean include sharks which, as apex predators, maintain balance in marine food webs; and sea otters that, by feeding on sea urchins, protect kelp forests that provide habitat for hundreds of types of sea animals.
