REEF KEEPERS

This is the story of the people healing Florida’s Coral Reef and finding resilience in themselves.

Florida’s Coral Reef has protected our coastline for generations. Now it’s fighting to survive. Amid record heat waves, stronger hurricanes, and their own grief, scientists are on a race to secure a future for the corals they love.

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SYNOPSIS

Reef Keepers is a documentary feature that spotlights the people fighting to save Florida’s Coral Reef, one of the state’s most vital, threatened, and deeply loved natural treasures.

Florida is home to the world’s third-largest barrier reef, which protects our coastline and undergirds our marine ecosystems and tourism industry. But the reef is in severe decline, having lost more than 90% of its coral cover since the 1970s.

Reef Keepers explores the grief and grit behind coral restoration, showing what it takes to keep going through record-breaking marine heat waves, coral disease, stronger hurricanes, and the emotional toll of ecological loss.

This film reveals one of the nation’s greatest environmental crises as a deeply personal struggle. It offers each of us a roadmap for how to turn hope into action and fight for what we love.

Reef Keepers is scheduled for release in 2027.

Worth an estimated $8.5 billion, Florida’s Coral Reef may be the state’s single most-valuable natural resource.

Women and a girl at an aquaculture facility examining fish in a white plastic container with a lid, labeled "FLAG CFC," inside a greenhouse or fish farming environment.
A woman with glasses and a blue shirt observing an aquarium display with colorful coral and sea creatures illuminated by purple and pink lights.
A close-up of a large sea coral with a textured, furry appearance submerged in water, surrounded by other smaller coral formations.
A woman with blonde hair wearing sunglasses and a neon green shirt with 'Reef Renewal USA' printed on it, smiling and holding a tray of coral fragments above water at a marine restoration site under a partly cloudy sky.
Group of people gathered around a white tank in an outdoor setting, with some peering inside. One woman is smiling, wearing sunglasses on her head, dressed in a blue shirt and black shorts. Two men are looking into the tank, one in a blue shirt and orange shorts, the other with a beard and sunglasses, wearing a blue shirt. A woman with curly hair, wearing a patterned white blouse, looks on. The scene appears to be part of a marine or aquatic activity.

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Frequently Asked Questions

  • Reef Keepers is a documentary film about scientists working to restore Florida’s Coral Reef while facing climate change, coral bleaching, environmental degradation, and environmental loss.

  • Reef Keepers is currently in production with an anticipated release in 2027.

  • Florida’s Coral Reef is our coastline’s first line of defense against storms and flooding, and provides essential habitat for marine wildlife, especially fish. It is also crucial to tourism, the state’s top industry.

  • Florida’s Coral Reef has lost almost 90% of its living corals over the past 40 years due to disease, bleaching, hurricanes, pollution, and marine heat waves.

  • Reef Keepers explores how three conservation scientists are tackling coral reef restoration with Floridian moxie and determination.

  • Florida’s coral restoration community is working to breed tougher corals, safeguarding many corals on land to preserve their genetics, and strategically outplanting corals at iconic reef sites.

  • Reef Keepers is an independent production by Floridians for Floridians. You can help us bring our state’s coral story to the big screen by supporting and sharing our work, following updates, and helping raise awareness about Florida’s Coral Reef and restoration efforts.