FORT PIERCE, Fla. — One of the world's rarest ecosystems off Florida's Treasure Coast moved one step closer to being reopened to shrimp trawling for the first time in decades.
Members of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council voted Friday to approve two amendments allowing shrimp trawling on parts of the Oculina Bank off the coast of Fort Pierce.
WATCH: Council votes 12-1 to allow shrimp trawling on Oculina Bank
WPTV has been following both sides of the debate for months. This is a move that many shrimpers support but environmental advocates oppose.
The Oculina Bank sits 200 to 300 feet below the surface, built from a rare coral called Oculina varicosa that glows white in the deep, dark waters. Unlike most reefs that need shallow sunlight, this unique ecosystem thrives in the depths.
Dr. Grant Gilmore, a marine scientist who has dived the reef, described towering coral formations reaching 50 feet high and stretching for miles.
"This is extremely unique," Gilmore said. "That species only occurs along this coast of Florida, and no place else."
Federal scientists discovered the reef in 1975, documenting an underwater paradise teeming with snapper, grouper and thousands of other species. By 1984, the government declared it a "Habitat Area of Particular Concern."
But scientists say shrimp trawling devastated the ecosystem, and discovered 90% of the reef was destroyed by the early 2000s as massive nets dragged across the seafloor, scooping up everything in their path, prompting the reef's designation as the nation's first marine protected area.
"It's just rubble on the bottom," Gilmore said. "You can see the scars from the otter doors. You can see occasionally nets that have broken off."
For months, scientists, environmental advocates and even members of the council's own advisory panel warned reopening the area to trawling could devastate the last remaining 10% of the reef — a habitat that exists nowhere else in the world.
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Council members with financial ties to vote on coral reef shrimp trawling
"If this were the Sistine Chapel, and somehow, God forbid, 90% of the Sistine Chapel were destroyed by fire or by something, we'd say we have to be extra protective of that last 10%," Mike Gravitz previously told WPTV.
Gravitz, senior policy advisor for the Marine Conservation Institute in Washington D.C., was one of 13 people who spoke up during public comment during Friday's virtual meeting, the majority of which urged council members to keep protections that have been in place for decades.
"Our scientific concern about this bottom trawling proposal close to the last best Oculina reefs in the world, is not rooted in opposition to fishing, but in the disproportionate risk posed by reopening even a small area," said Gravitz during public comment.
Yet after about an hour of public comment and 15 minutes of discussion, council members voted 12–1 during Friday’s virtual meeting to reopen up to 24 square miles of the Oculina Bank—an area larger than Manhattan—to shrimp trawling.
Many argued the move aligns with a Trump executive order and cited studies claiming the areas being reopened contain no live coral.
Protecting Paradise
Scientists warn rare reef found only in Florida could be destroyed again
"I support reopening this area, I do believe it provides a buffer. Seeing what came out of the new mapping study, which didn't find any coral in this proposed area, and also this amendment is responding directly to an executive order to reduce regulatory burden, improve access to the resource and improve access to the profitability," Jessica McCawley, council vice chair, said.
"I understand the concerns, but I don't believe we're going to be causing harm to the reef, so I will let it stand right there," added council member Charlie Phillips.
Conservationists WPTV spoke with after the vote said they're not surprised but are disappointed by the outcome.
They point to the same mapping study cited by council members, which does point out no living coral in the area, but also warns sediment from trawling could drift into nearby living reef and smother what little remains.
"I want to talk about the fact that trawling or dragging anything along the bottom creates a lot of disruption and things in the water column that is damaging to the corals," said Drew Martin, a member of the marine team for the National Sierra Club. "Also with climate change, I am particularly concerned that we are not in a position to harm an existing resource when we may be losing our surface corals at this time."
Previous WPTV investigations found that similar amendments proposed in the past failed after triggering widespread national opposition, including nearly 50,000 public comments opposing a comparable proposal in 2022.
WPTV also found that seven of the council’s 13 voting members filed financial disclosure forms. Five reported direct financial ties to the shrimping or fishing industry. Meanwhile, members of the council’s Coral Advisory Panel — a 13-member group of scientists and coral experts with no financial interests — told WPTV they were never consulted on the amendment, despite repeated attempts to raise concerns.
"The reasoning that the council gave us was that, well, we have your opinions on Coral [Amendment] 10, and so this isn't much different, so we really don't need your opinion on this one," said Dr. Sandra Brooke, a member of the Coral Advisory panel. "It sort of speaks to a little bit to the lack of transparency."
This vote is not final. Both NOAA and the Secretary of Commerce must still sign off, and when a similar amendment passed in 2022, NOAA rejected it.
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