An underwater coral field in a shipping channel leading to the Port of Miami will apparently not be saved after all from a dredging that was set to begin today.

The United States Army Corps of Engineers denied a request June 6 from researchers wanting more time to move the stationary, long-lived animals out of harm's way to an artificial reef, according to a report by Reuters.

"Taxpayers would be paying $50,000 to $100,000 a day to keep that dredge on standby and that's not happening," Susan Jackson, a spokeswoman for the corps, said in the news story.

Port officials decided to deepen the channel 50 feet, or, 15 meters, in an effort to attract larger cargo ships expected to travel through the Panama Canal after its expansion is completed.

Researchers started making daily dives to gather coral in and around the dredge site in late May, following the corps-ordered relocation of an estimated 900 mature corals by the dredging contractor, Illinois-based Great Lakes Dredge & Dock finished relocating about 900 more mature corals to an artificial reef as required by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Colin Foord, a marine biologist and co-founder of Miami-based Coral Morphologicmarine biology laboratory, told Reuters he and his colleagues were able to "remove more than 2,000 corals in less than two weeks and if we had another two weeks we'd get thousands more."

Said Rachel Silverstein, the executive director of environmental advocate Biscayne Bay Waterkeepers, which unsuccessfully sued the state three years ago to stop the $150 million project: "We now have another set of eyes in the water looking at what's down there and we want to be sure what was required in the permit was done."

Foord is one of several scientists who believe corals living in the shallow waters just south of Miami Beach can offer clues as to how the world's disappearing coral can survive within changing ecosystems.