About a hundred miles off the coast of southwest Florida – beneath about 250 feet of water - sits the deepest coral reef ever found on the U.S. continental shelf. Marine scientists discovered the Pulley Ridge reef in 1999. They’re only just beginning to understand the role it, and other deep water reefs like it, play in the oceanic ecosystem.

While the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council has taken steps to protect Pulley Ridge – some marine scientists are concerned that other deep water coral reefs off U.S. coastlines are being unknowingly decimated by what’s called bottom-trawling fishing.

Florida Senator Mel Martinez is co-sponsoring legislation that would limit bottom-trawling to areas that have already been fished. WGCU’s Mike Kiniry has more…