Climate change and global warming threaten biodiversity around the world. According to a recent report from the United Nations, approximately one million species are threatened with extinction. Such a decrease in the diversity of species means the natural ecosystems of today—the forests, fields, deserts, coasts, and oceans—will undergo dramatic change in our lifetimes. The wild spaces as we know them will no longer exist.

Coral reefs are an example of vital ecosystems facing extinction. Global warming and other stressors will cause coral reefs to decline to less than 1 percent of their former cover. But while today’s reefs languish, nature has produced a possible path forward: hybrid corals. Hybrid corals, or a mix of two different coral species, are in some cases more resilient to climate change and other stressors than their parent species. However, hybrid corals, like many species around the world, are threatened by human activity. A suite of international, federal, state, and local laws purport to protect endangered and threatened species, including corals. Unfortunately, these laws, notably the U.S. Endangered Species Act, do not protect hybrid species. Given the crisis facing biodiversity and coral reefs around the world, hybrid corals should no longer be overlooked.

This Note discusses naturally occurring hybrid corals in Florida and the Caribbean. It provides background on the role coral reefs play in human societies around the world and in Florida, explains the importance of hybrid corals to global coral reefs, and surveys the patchwork of laws that purport to protect corals. Given the potential role hybrid corals may have in coral reef persistence, this Note suggests revising the Endangered Species Act’s implementing regulations to protect hybrid corals. Regulations should permit the listing of hybrid species as threatened and endangered, or agencies should reevaluate best available science regarding hybrid corals in listing such organisms under the Act. Considering the threats facing biodiversity, ignoring naturally occurring hybrids that may be resilient to climate change is an oversight we cannot afford.