Red Tape on a Blue Planet

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-9-2026

Abstract

As bleaching events continue to unfold and worsen, coral restoration practitioners are increasingly pointing condemning fingers toward regulators and policy makers for their responses. From their standpoint, law has become less a tool of coral protection than a barrier to coral survival. In an effort to ensure such survival, the scientists have been advocating for changes in the law that would remove some of the restrictions. Focusing on the events of the fourth global bleaching in Florida, this essay explores how coral scientists have interpreted and worked with the legal and institutional constraints, demonstrating how governance frameworks, legal timeframes, and institutional boundaries have shaped the scientific possibilities during the ongoing climate crisis. Coral survival, the essay finally argues, will depend on more than just embracing once-feared interventions. It will involve forging transdisciplinary networks that identify issues before emergencies hit, creating protocols for rapid response, and cultivating resilient collaborations across disciplines and institutions. Only by building strong and diverse relationships can we hope to respond to the climate crises with the speed and coordination that coral survival now requires. The question is whether we – and by ‘we’ I mean scientists, regulators, communities and all of us who depend on a healthy ocean – can build these relationships in time.

Publication Title

Aeon Magazine

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