Super Bowl LV NFL Green Week Stretches Into South Florida With Coral Reef Restoration Project
MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- NFL's Green Week in Tampa ahead of Super Bowl LV is being felt in South Florida with the continued restoration of a section of Florida's endangered coral reef.
NFL Green is working with the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and the Florida Aquarium to plant 150 elkhorn corals in Biscayne Bay.
The planting of so many elkhorn corals, a threatened species, is rare and will add to the genetic diversity of the reef.
The coral restoration project unites the Super Bowl host communities of Miami and Tampa.
Watch the report on coral reef restoration:
Last year's environmental initiative for Super Bowl LIV in Miami was the planting of 100 staghorn corals (another threatened species) in honor of the NFL's 100th season.
This year, the initiative was expanded for Super Bowl LV in Tampa to become 100 Yards of Hope, a football field-sized coral restoration project.
The end zones and center of the field were established in the fall when divers planted 100 two-year-old juvenile staghorn coral colonies from The Florida Aquarium, and more than a thousand staghorn corals from the University of Miami's Rescue a Reef program. Thousands of mountainous star coral larvae, another threatened species, were also added to the reef.
A final planting of massive star and brain corals in the spring will complete the football field-sized effort.
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NFL Green, the NFL's environmental program, has managed environmental-related Super Bowl projects for more than 25 years.
These environmental projects are part of a larger program of community events and initiatives implemented each year by the NFL and Super Bowl Host Committee to leave a positive benefit in each Super Bowl host community.
