APOLLO BEACH, Fla. (WFLA) — Scientists have successfully spawned a cross-bred coral and plan on planting them just off Biscayne Bay in Miami.

They start as larvae and begin their next phase of growth into these quarter-size corals. The program at the Florida Aquarium Research Center is the first to accomplish such a feat.

“We have coral that have been bred between two different countries. So, we actually have elkhorn coral from Honduras that were imported by the University of Miami and then brought here to our center, and we were able to crossbreed them with corals from Florida,” said O’Neil.

O’Neil said the Honduran coral breed are more resistant to extreme heat. The hope is this new international crossbreed will be the answer to Florida’s threatened coral species due to rising water temperatures.

“These corals have stronger genes and actually will help diversify the gene pool of the elkhorn corals here in Florida and make them more resilient,” O’Neil said.

Although the full effect of an effective outplant won’t be seen for at least 100 years, the team here said rebuilding our coral population is critical.

“So when they’re healthy and growing they really are like nature’s seawall, they actually break that wave action before it can hit our beaches and erode our coastlines,” O’Neil said.

This is just a small sample of the overall experiment. O’Neil said they have more than 200 baby corals still submerged in their onsite tanks.

The team drove the baby coral down in a cooler Monday to begin its planting journey in Miami.