The Trump administration is delaying efforts to increase protections for the threatened pillar coral species. This is part of a freeze on new federal regulations, pending a 60-day review.
Pillar corals are found in Florida waters, throughout the Caribbean, and down into South America.
"It kind of looks like what I imagined a mermaid's castle would look like. They have these tall golden pillars. They're almost fluffy,” said Elise Bennett, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity.
She said the corals have been wiped out mostly by stony coral tissue loss disease, and bleaching from extreme heat.
Bennett said they're now at risk for extinction.
"It really is an emergency for this species that it gets all the protections that it can," she said.
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The federal government was supposed to list them as "endangered" on Tuesday, February 18, which would have strengthened protections for the species, while also unlocking more funding for conservation, research, and monitoring.
But a White House memo last month pushed the classification to March 21.
“In compliance with this Presidential memorandum, NOAA Fisheries delayed the effective date for the reclassification of pillar coral,” said a representative of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration via email.
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Bennett said protections “can’t wait.”
"So, having these widespread memoranda that require all of these rules to be held up, it's only delaying really important protections, and that's incredibly frustrating," she said, adding that pillar coral help to form the nurseries for our fisheries.
“If you like seafood, if you like living next to a healthy coast, then you also like having healthy coral, and should be really concerned about this,’ she said.
