British biotech firm Oxitec is looking at 12 sites throughout the Keys to release millions of genetically modified mosquitoes, which are designed to eliminate most of the local population of Zika-spreading aedes aegypti mosquitoes.
The disease that appeared in 2014 was found for the first time this week in the Lower Keys, jumping a gap in the reef tract at the Seven Mile Bridge the scientists hoped would keep the outbreak from spreading to South Florida's most diverse reefs.
The eastern Gulf of Mexico has long been eyed for oil and gas drilling. But the Trump administration surprised industry analysts by including the U.S. east coast, where there has been no oil and little gas produced and little exploration.
