As its waters warm due to climate change, its coral reefs are under extreme stress.

That's causing them to bleach.

And it's all happening quickly.

(Dr. Michael Crosby, CEO and President of Mote Laboratory)

"The Florida Keys literally would not exist if it were not for the coral reef tract that has existed here over the millennia. And unfortunately, there have been some rather significant challenges and perturbations inflicted upon these coral reefs."

Scientists are joining forces to look for a solution.

But can Florida's coral reef be saved?

The reef is home to millions of species of marine life.

Experts say it supports healthy ocean food webs and protests coastlines.

As many parts of the US face heat waves, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported water temperatures in the mid-90s Fahrenheit...

Far hotter than the 73-88 degrees Fahrenheit it typically should be during this time of year.

(Allyson DeMerlis, University of Miami)

"In the last five years that I've been studying corals, I've seen a lot of change in Miami. I feel like there's been more. There's been more storms, higher temperatures and heat waves that have just caused more problems for the reef."

Scientists from the NOAA and Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium are teaming up in response to the crisis.

They have come up with new techniques to propagate and transplant healthy corals.

Part of that includes cultivating coral fragments in nurseries, ensuring their strength and viability before reintroducing them into the ocean.

"We want to restore corals in these coral reefs in a manner in which they can now take on their own replication and put us out of business in terms of coral restoration. We don't want to be in the business of restoring corals for the rest of our lives."

They're already beginning to see progress on that front.

"They have withstood over a five year period, two coral bleaching events, a Category 4 hurricane that went right over the top of it, and stony coral tissue loss disease. These coral fragments that we put out there survived all of that, killed all the coral around it. What we put out survived not only did it survive, but it did what our end goal is."