Florida’s reefs once abounded in great sharks and giant groupers.  Not so anymore. Over the last 500 years, the reefs' apex predators have been fished to mere shadows of their pre-colonial abundance. But only recently has marine ecology come to appreciate the interdependence of the reef and its great predators for one another’s survival. Here is a peek at the glorious richness of the reefs that once were, and how with our help they could be again.

Will Stolzenburg is a wildlife journalist whose stories have led him from Amazonian forests to Aleutian islands, Rocky Mountains to Chihuahuan Desert, tropical coral gardens to subarctic sea cliffs. He is the former science editor of Nature Conservancy magazine, and more recently the author of three books on the role of wild predators in the humanized web of life, including "Where the Wild Things Were" and "Heart of a Lion". He is currently developing a book and multimedia presentation for kids on kindness and caring, with the help of those domesticated wolves we call dogs.    

Sarah Fangman is the Superintendent of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

Although relatively new to the position, she has done extensive scientific work in the Florida Keys including more than 400 dives, some of which assisted researchers in monitoring coral disease and coral health. She logged two saturation dives at the Aquarius Reef Base underwater research laboratory and served as diver and dive master on multiple research missions in the Keys aboard the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster. Prior to coming to Key West, she was Superintendent of Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary, off the coast of Georgia. She has been with the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries since 1998, after serving as a U.S. Presidential Management Fellow with NOAA Fisheries in the Northwest and the Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response program in Washington D.C. Fangman started her career with sanctuaries as the Research Coordinator at Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary in California, and then moved to Savannah in 2005 to serve as the Program Coordinator for the sanctuary system’s Southeast, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean region.   

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