1. United States
2. Md.
3. Letter

Florida's coral reefs are dying in real time, and I need you to act. Launch a formal investigation into the unprecedented collapse happening off our coast, then back it with serious funding for reef protection, coral nursery programs, and rapid response teams. This is not a slow-moving problem — healthy sections of reef are going from alive to dead in roughly 48 hours. What's happening now is not normal bleaching. Record-breaking sea surface temperatures, a spreading coral disease, and low-oxygen water from agricultural and septic runoff are hitting simultaneously, at intensities and across areas that have no clear historical precedent. Corals weakened by months of heat stress are losing immune defenses, and when disease arrives, entire sections slough tissue and die within days. Scientists are calling this a convergence with few parallels in the data. The window to act is closing fast. I want to see legislation that tightens fertilizer regulations, upgrades stormwater and sewage infrastructure, and expands protected reef zones. Fund assisted evolution research and the coral restoration programs that have already shown results. Florida's reefs support billions in tourism and fisheries — losing them is an economic catastrophe, not just an environmental one. This is the moment to get ahead of it.