Collapsed Reef reporting 2008

[William Djubin]

Utilize this thread to indicate recent collapsed reef systems.
(Please join in and share your recent experiences)
This should not be confused with a degraded system or bleaching event.
The following list is of areas that 2 years ago teemed with sponges, soft corals, inverts, and tropical fishes.

Florida
-Sugar Sands Ledges intercoastal reef tract is collapsed and void of all life.
-Singer Island (south-end near inlet) onshore reef tract is collapsed
-Cato's Bridge intercoastal reef tract is collapsed

I have heard of areas in the Florida Keys between Marathon and Largo that have suffered severe reef collapse. Do you know of a location?

[William Djubin]

Harbor Branch Oceanographic's Brian Lapointe writes EarthRehab.

In the 1960s, about 80 percent to 90 percent of the corals in the Keys were alive. Today, 94 percent of them are dead, according to Lapointe, a senior marine ecologist with the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution in Fort Pierce.
The cause is septic drain fields in the low-lying Keys that leach nutrient-rich waste material into the groundwater and the ocean.
Compounding the problem are outfalls on the southeastern Florida coast that send partially treated sewage — with high concentrations of nitrogen and phosphate — into the Atlantic Ocean. A significant amount of nitrogen comes from fertilizers washed out of large farms in the Everglades. Another source is rainfall. The burning of fossil fuels is putting higher concentrations of nitrogen and oxides into the air. That comes back to ground and sea in rain.
Nutrient-rich water promotes algae blooms that choke out coral reefs, colonies of millions of tiny living animals. The death of the reef destroys the habitat of native fish.