APOLLO BEACH — In the race to save Florida’s coral reef from extinction, hope comes in many shapes and sizes.

At the Florida Aquarium’s coral breeding lab, it looks like hundreds of knobby, golden-brown pastries.

Scientists believe some of these palm-sized coral babies — 1,050 of them in total — contain the special ingredients to stave off a warming ocean that has damaged 84% of the world’s reefs since 2023.

The first chapter in the life of these Elkhorn coral offspring is already one of resilience: They are the children of parent coral colonies evacuated from offshore Florida waters ahead of a record bleaching event two years ago. Had the adults not been plucked from the ocean and brought to the cooler waters of a lab, they likely would have bleached or died.

Instead, they brought new life. And the second chapter for the babies began last week.

Roughly a dozen aquarium staff gathered at the Apollo Beach lab on May 7 to pack and load the corals into a moving truck bound for the Florida Keys. Its destination was the Keys Marine Laboratory on Long Key, smack in the middle of the 200-mile island chain.

In the Keys, scientists will plant the babies in offshore reefs or continue to nurture them in ocean nurseries. If these offspring follow in the footsteps of their tough parents, researchers hope they might one day provide Florida with the much-needed benefits of a healthy reef: coastal protection, habitat for marine life and a lure for tourists and anglers.

“Everything that Florida’s coral reef is going through can be really disheartening as a coral researcher, but it doesn’t mean we need to give up hope. There’s always something more that we can try, something more that we can do,” said Keri O’Neil, director of the aquarium’s Coral Conservation Program.

The Apollo Beach lab headed by O’Neil is one of the nation’s largest coral breeding operations. Its goal is to create animals that are more durable to warming waters fueled by human-caused climate change. Raising a coral from infancy is no simple task: As O’Neil put it, the round-the-clock endeavor requires the perfect blend of light, chemistry and water flow.

When sea temperatures spike, corals bleach — or weaken — which makes them more vulnerable to disease or death.

Compared to scientists who care for offshore reefs that are up against the seasonal clock (every summer, the ocean heats up), O’Neil’s team, running several tanks, has the gift of time and predictable water temperatures. Keep corals in the right environment, and they can thrive. Every set of babies teaches scientists something new.

“We were able to save these parents, give them a place to live indefinitely, and continue to reproduce them until we, as scientists, can figure out the best way to make corals more resilient,” O’Neil said.

The significance of that task is not lost on Matt Wade, a senior coral biologist at the aquarium who has witnessed difficult days for Florida’s reefs.

In 2023, Wade assisted in the urgent mass coral evacuation by hurriedly building a tank system to house refugee corals in the Tampa Bay region. Last week, as he loaded corals into coolers and gave instructions to staff, he took a moment to reflect on the past few years and the baby corals he’s been caring for since they were small enough for a microscope.

“It’s not nearly as anxiety-inducing as it was during that heat wave,” but the job is still an important one, he said. Without human intervention, these branching, golden Elkhorn corals that resemble elk antlers wouldn’t be naturally settling on Florida reefs. Far too many have been lost for them to breed on their own.

He likened the mission to a sort of modern-day Noah’s Ark: Scientists have scooped up these important animals from the brink of collapse, and now, with the right genetic mixing, they could be on the path to a better tomorrow.

In 2022, the Florida Aquarium’s lab became the first in history to spawn elkhorn corals in a land-based facility. That helps increase the genetic diversity of the species, creating new animals that could become more heat tolerant.

“Hidden within their genetics could be the key to surviving heatwaves,” Wade said excitedly.

Last year, adding to their arsenal, the aquarium received several elkhorn corals from Honduras that appeared to withstand hotter-than-normal temperatures. They may also be a key to unlocking a stronger breed of animals.

If spawning, raising and loading hundreds of young corals weren’t difficult enough, aquarium staff then had to drive them 300 miles south.

That’s where Brian Reckenbeil came in.

As a coral restoration manager, Reckenbeil takes on many roles, from diving reefs to testing new ways to protect corals from predators. His most recent role, though, was driving the rented Enterprise box truck seven hours down chaotic Florida roads with precious cargo on board.

There were about 120 corals per cooler in the truck. Each of those coolers was full of seawater.

“It’s different than driving human passengers,” Reckenbeil joked. “You have to go extra slow on those turns.”

If this was “coral school,” the babies had finally graduated, and Reckenbeil saw his job as introducing the animals to their next stage of life.

After a long journey, Reckenbeil rolled into the Keys Marine Laboratory at roughly 6:45 p.m., where about 15 coral experts eagerly welcomed the new arrivals.

Scientists first acclimated the babies to saltwater tanks before handing over 300 corals each to organizations on the frontlines of Florida’s coral restoration, including Mote Marine Laboratory, Reef Renewal USA and the Coral Restoration Foundation.

Sustainable Ocean and Reefs, a group that cultivates herbivorous sea urchins to graze on the algae that settles on corals, also received roughly 100 babies.

Cynthia Lewis, the Keys Marine Lab’s director, described the arrival of the offspring as “well-orchestrated,” “all-hands-on-deck” and “controlled chaos.” Above all else, though, she described seeing the babies for the first time as heart-warming.

The Tampa Bay Times was with Lewis in 2023 in the early days after she opened her lab to corals rescued from dangerously hot ocean water. It was an unprecedented moment in the history of Florida’s embattled reefs, where the scientists’ crucial task of saving as many lives as possible buried the grief of witnessing an ecosystem in trouble.

Last week, though, was a moment of joy for her team, she said. In a field of study struck by immense loss in recent years, it’s the little wins that count.

“It was a pretty exciting thing to see,” Lewis said. “It was a real positive event, to see these corals coming full circle.”