MIAMI — The marine heatwave that gripped Florida in 2023 was hotter than anything Florida has seen in 150 years, and claimed at least two victims — species of corals now marked “functionally extinct” from Florida’s reefs.

That finding comes from a newly published scientific paper that reads more like an obituary for two of the most visible and important coral species on Florida’s reefs: elkhorn and staghorn corals. In 2023, the ocean was warmer than it had ever been. When corals spend too long in hot water, they spit out the algae that live within their bodies, providing them food and shade.

Without them, corals are ghostly white and bleached. If they stay bleached for too long, they starve and sunburn to death over a few weeks. But in 2023, scientists saw something new for Florida. The

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