LOOE KEY, Fla. – Combat wounded military veterans are combining their personal healing journeys with environmental recovery by restoring damaged coral reefs in the Florida Keys. The long-running initiative helps rebuild marine habitats while inspiring the next generation of ocean stewards.
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Florida Keys marine restoration
What we know:
For 15 years, Mote Marine Laboratory has partnered with the Combat Wounded Veteran Challenge, a division of Operation No Person Left Behind Outdoors and ScubaNauts International. The volunteers worked at the Looe Key offshore coral nursery to clean algae and install new anchor points for coral trees.
The teams also completed surveys of small grazing creatures and removed invasive lionfish. These lionfish will be utilized by local schools in the Keys for educational purposes.
Veterans find new purpose
What they’re saying:
“All the structures in our off shores nurseries need to be cleaned and maintained fairly frequently,” program manager Dr. Jason Spadaro said.Â
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There is nothing that will stop these veterans from carrying out their task as they work to heal the environment while healing themselves.
“This program and programs like it are so critical, not only because it’s a moral booster, you see folks that have gone through pretty traumatic experiences in their life, coming back and showing that resilience to losing limbs and traumatic brain injuries,” Spadaro said. “Horrible things and then coming back and doing something very inspiring and then using those experiences and their recovery from them to inspire the next generation of ocean stewards is beyond motivating.”
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