MIAMI (AP) - Federal officials are proposing to list 66 coral species in the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea as endangered or threatened.
    
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Friday it had spent three years researching coral threats, including rising ocean temperatures, ocean acidification and coral disease.
    
In the Pacific, NOAA is proposing to list seven species as endangered and 52 as threatened. In the Caribbean, they are proposing to list five as endangered and two as threatened. The agency also wants two Caribbean species already listed under the Endangered Species Act to be reclassified from threatened to endangered.
    
There will be a 90-day public comment period and 18 public meetings before the listing is finalized in late 2013.

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