Unfortunately, much of the Oculina habitat is completely destroyed, reduced to a layer of rubble. This habitat loss is at least in part due to trawling and much of the loss occurred over 25 years ago. Foreign trawlers operated on the east Florida shelf before the Magnuson Act of 1976 and American trawlers targeted rock shrimp and scallops after this time.

Now, the entire Oculina Banks, some 300 square miles, have been set aside as a Habitat Area of Particular Concern (HAPC) by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council. The HAPC designation

protects the remaining habitat from mobile fishing gear and from other potentially damaging mechanical impacts. In addition, the lower portion of the HAPC, called the Experimental Oculina Research Reserve (EORR), was closed to bottom fishing in 1994 for a period of 10 years to allowscientific studies on the recovery of fish populations and grouper spawning aggregations.

Habitat restoration began in 2000.  However because of the slow growth rate of Oculina, 1 to 2 cm per year, the successful establishment of Oculina thickets, if it occurs, will take decades.

In depths of 50 m or greater, Oculina varicosa lacks zooxanthellae, the symbiotic algae that give corals their color and part of their nutrition; thus, the coral is white at these depths and relies solely on plankton for food