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Looe Key

Coral reef in the Florida Keys, US

Field	Value
name	Looe Key
photo	Looe Key chart11445.jpg
photo_caption	Map of Looe Key from NOAA Navigational Chart 11445
location	Caribbean
pushpin_map	Florida#Caribbean
country	United States
type	reef
coordinates

Looe Key is a coral reef located within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. It lies to the south of Big Pine Key. This reef is within a Sanctuary Preservation Area (SPA). Part of Looe Key is designated as "Research Only," an area which protects some of the patch reefs landward of the main reef.

The reef is named after , which ran aground on the reef and sank in 1744.

In August 1994, RV Columbus Iselin, a research vessel owned by the University of Miami, ran aground on Looe Key and damaged approximately 164 m2 of living coral and a larger area of reef framework. In 1997, the University paid $3.76 million in natural resource damage claims to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In 1999, a restoration project involving placement of limestone boulders, pouring of concrete, and reintroduction of benthic species was undertaken by NOAA and its subcontractors.

The key was protected as Looe Key National Marine Sanctuary in 1981 until it was incorporated into Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary in 1997.

Gallery

File:Buoys at Looe Key.jpg|NOAA map of Looe Key File:Looe Key 1979 1VEOR00110046.jpg|Aerial photo of Looe Key in 1979. File:Looe Key satellite 1992.PNG|February 1992 satellite photo of Looe Key, revealing its spur and groove formations File:Looe Key Reef.PNG|Looe Key File:Staghorn_Looe_Key_2010.jpg|Endangered staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) alive at Looe Key in July 2010. File:Elkhorn 01 Looe Key 2010.jpg|Endangered elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) alive at Looe Key in July 2010.

References

[http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/special/columbus/columbus.html Columbus Iselin Coral Reef Restoration Project] (NOAA), Retrieved 10 January 2011

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

coral-reefs-of-the-florida-keys

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