Hanna Koch is articulate beyond her years. As a published author, sought-after presenter, and winner of awards in ocean and marine science, she’s accomplished more at nearly age 40 than most. Selected as the first director of artificial reefs in the Florida Keys, she oversees a five-year, $15 million implementation plan for Monroe County.
Koch is both proud and passionate about the Keys’ newest project for artificial reefs. Referred to as “habitat support structures,” it includes a recent deployment of 45 retired concrete power poles, each 35- to 55-feet-long and stacked in perpendicular layers to create underwater spaces for marine life.
Hanna Koch checks on baby corals at Mote’s Elizabeth Moore International Center for Coral Reef Research and Restoration at a land-based coral nursery on the Lower Keys’ Summerland Key. (Photo courtesy of Hanna Koch)
These three new underwater patch reefs range from six to 12 feet in height, are about 65 feet in diameter and 40 to 45 feet deep and can be found in federal waters about 16 miles off Key West. Those patch reefs, she says, are yielding a world of possibilities for marine and eco life.
“We aim to provide economic benefits by providing new fishing and diving opportunities and ecosystem benefits,” Koch said. “By providing quality, complex habitat for marine life, we’re promoting biodiversity.”
The poles — sunk to help relieve pressure on Florida’s Coral Reef in the Keys — are successfully hosting scores of groupers, nurse sharks, sea turtles, snappers, and invertebrate species engaging in reproduction and depositing egg masses.
Hannah Koch enjoys family time with husband Nils, who hails from Germany, and daughter Ruby, who enjoys her barefoot life in the Keys. (Photo courtesy of Hanna Koch)
From shallow to deep waters, and from the Upper to the Lower Keys on both sides of the archipelago, Koch is currently developing three categories of artificial reef projects for Monroe County,
The first, The Gulfside Network, is in waters 35 to 50 feet deep, five to 20 miles offshore in the Middle and Lower Keys. It will include up to 10 sites within two to five nautical miles of each other. Each site, she says, will have multiple patch reefs hosting a variety of structure sizes and styles. The network’s goal is to provide waypoints for migrating marine life and structurally complex habitat for fish and invertebrates, and to disperse fishing activity.
Husband Niles (far l), Hanna holding Ruby, and Hanna’s father Kenneth (far r), enjoy family time and practice sustainability efforts in their daily lives. (Photo courtesy of Hanna Koch)
The second, in 300 feet on the Atlantic Ocean side, are the new Deep Beyond Reefs planned off Islamorada, Marathon and Key West to expand deep-water fishing opportunities. High relief structures are to be deployed at these sites to maximize habitat for a variety and abundance of fish species.
The third, the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Habitat Support Structures Pilot Program, is planned in Florida Bay off of Marathon and Layton in shallow nearshore waters six to eight feet deep. Small structures will be designed and deployed to provide low relief habitat and support nursery grounds for juvenile fish and invertebrate species.
Currently in the Keys, more than 60 artificial reefs include an underwater Shipwreck Trail with nine historic shipwrecks including the Vandenberg, a large, former U.S. military ship intentionally sunk to become an artificial reef off the coast of Key West in 2009.
Two-year-old daughter Ruby, Hanna and husband Nils explore an uninhabited Lower Keys island off of Ohio Key. (Photo courtesy of Hanna Koch)
Despite the Vandenberg’s popularity, the Keys’ artificial reef plans do not include additional shipwrecks for the immediate future, Koch said.
Koch’s work involves working closely with officials at the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, which protects more than 2,800 square miles of water surrounding the 125-mile-long island chain. This partnership and oversight benefit the Keys’ fragile marine ecosystems.
“Hanna is well-established among the Sanctuary’s practitioners and has been working closely with our science team to develop projects compatible with the objectives of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary,” said David Burke, the Sanctuary’s acting superintendent. “We look forward to continued collaboration with Hanna and her staff.”
Hanna Koch, a diver who earned her certification in the Keys, examines parent staghorn corals at Mote Marine Laboratory’s underwater coral nursery at Sand Key. (Photo courtesy of Hanna Koch)
Koch, who holds a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Ploen, Germany, came to the Keys seven years ago on a post-doctoral fellowship to conduct research on selective breeding in corals at Mote Marine Laboratory on Summerland Key.
While at Mote, Koch worked closely with a talented team including then-Executive Director Dave Vaughan, recognized globally for his pioneering work with coral micro-fragmentation, and Erinn Muller, associate vice president for research, program manager for coral health and disease and senior scientist with the Coral Health and Disease Research Program.
Halloween 2024 is a family affair: husband Nils, Ruby and Hanna, attired in costume. (Photo courtesy of Hanna Koch)
“She is an amazing person and one of the best scientists I have had the pleasure to work with,” Muller said of Koch. “She is incredibly dedicated to her research efforts and ensures that her work will make long-lasting positive impacts on the local community.”
As the daughter of a decorated Army helicopter pilot, Koch has lived throughout the world. She was in Korea shortly after her birth, then in Alabama, Kentucky, and Germany several times. She attended high school in Germany and graduated in Belgium.
A graduate of Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, with a B.S. in marine science, Koch also holds an M.S. in biology from California State University in Los Angeles, California.
Today, she lives in Big Pine Key with husband Nils, whom she met in Germany, and their 2-year-old daughter Ruby, who enjoys a barefoot life and piggybacking onto Koch when her mother is snorkeling.
Keys Traveler: When did you first come to the Florida Keys and why?
Dr. Hanna Koch: In 2007…to get SCUBA certified after Eugenie Clark, Mote’s founder and the renowned shark biologist, invited me to join a diving research expedition in Papua New Guinea, to study coral reefs. I then moved here in 2018 after receiving a post-doctoral research fellowship from the German Research Foundation to conduct coral reproduction and restoration research at Mote.
KT: What aspects of the Keys environment or way of life matter most to you?
HK: Being connected to the water. Being surrounded by it. Appreciating it. Working in it. Playing in it. Studying it. Being a steward of it. Our marine environment is so beautiful, and it brings so many of us purpose and joy. It’s a calming presence, and I am fulfilled by a drive to protect it.
KT: What inspired you to become passionate about protecting the Keys’ natural world and how does that passion impact your daily life and work?
HK: From age 10, I wanted to be a marine scientist. I was always drawn to the ocean and loved comparing how things you would find at the beach would be similar or different around the world — and wondered why that was so. I wanted my professional efforts to have real-world positive impacts, which led me to marine conservation. The fascination with something can drive you to want to protect it, especially if you know it’s under threat. I was drawn to protect the Florida Keys’ natural world because something so beautiful and life-sustaining needs to be safeguarded. It’s the vibrant backdrop to our way of life. If we want to keep our unique way of life, we must maintain the health of our environment. I actively work to improve conditions in our marine environment. In my family’s daily life, we don’t use chemicals to eradicate weeds in our yard. We also avoid single-use plastics, pick up marine debris when we’re out boating, and prioritize non-chemical sun protection…all very simple things.
KT: How do you personally work to ‘connect and protect’ the Keys’ environment and the island chain’s unique lifestyle?
HK: Connecting and protecting the Keys is very much a family affair. My father took care of my coral babies at Mote for a week while I attended a conference. I taught him how to clean tanks, maintain water quality, and feed baby corals. When he got SCUBA-certified here and we dove the reef together. That’s when I showed him where the coral’s he took care of were outplanted. My husband, a carpenter from Germany, works in marine construction and is a great resource for understanding various types of machinery, materials, and methods used in construction projects like artificial reefs. Any time his friends and family visit from Germany, we take them to the reef for an unforgettable experience.
KT: What do you hope your environmental actions in the Keys will help accomplish?
HK: My goals include increasing the quality and structural complexity of habitat for marine life across the Keys to promote the persistence of populations and biodiversity. And to provide new fishing and diving opportunities to help to reduce pressure on natural reefs, and to improve conditions and resources within the Sanctuary by taking a science-based ecosystem-focused approach. I also hope to develop dive training reefs to shift human impacts away from more stressed areas. Lastly, to create networks of sites with habitat support structures — ones that extend from near to offshore, up and down the Keys, and on both the Gulf and Atlantic sides — to sustain movements of fish and invertebrates as they mature and migrate across different habitats.