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When marine scientist Ian Enochs jumped into the water at Cheeca Rocks, a small reef in the Florida Keys known for vibrantly colorful corals, what he saw shook him to the core. “Literally everything was white,” said Enochs, a research ecologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Miami. “It does not look normal at all, it’s just like a different reef.” It was July, still early in what would become the hottest summer on record in South Florida, and Enochs waswitnessing a mass event bleaching — a telltale trouble sign that corals are struggling in abnormally hot ocean wat…

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