As the people of the Bahamas struggle to recover from Hurricane Dorian , the strongest storm in the nations history, a team of scientists is setting out to assess the damage to the vibrant coral reefs that are key to the islands fisheries and tourism-dependent economy.

The Perry Institute for Marine Science, a research organization based in Vermont, began post-hurricane surveys on Monday. It plans to visit numerous sites around Grand Bahama and the Abaco Islands over the next few weeks, taking the first comprehensive look at Dorians impact below the surface.

Weve never had a storm of this magnitude and thats lasted so long, Krista Sherman, a marine scientist at the Perry Institute, told HuffPost.

Dorian made landfall Sept. 1 in the Abaco Islands before stalling over Grand Bahama for 30 hours. The storm battered the islands with sustained 185 mph winds and a storm surge of more than 20 feet, leveling entire neighborhoods and leaving some 70% of Grand Bahama underwater. Scientists say above-average ocean temperatures fueled the storm, which more hurricanes are expected to resemble as the world warms.

Coral in this part of the Atlantic and in the Caribbean evolved to survive hurricanes. But like reefs around the globe, they face a slew of environmental threats, from heat-induced bleaching and disease to pollution runoff and overfishing.

There are all these threats that they are having to deal with that historically they didnt have to deal with, Sherman said. They are not recovering as quickly and in the same way because they are under this constant stress.

A 2016 report from the Perry Institute and several other organizations assessed more than 200 reefs in the Bahamas and concluded that the nations reefs as a whole are imperiled.

Mark Eakin, coordinator of the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administrations Coral Reef Watch, told HuffPost that so-called massive corals , including species of brain and boulder corals, are better equipped to withstand strong wave action than fragile species of branching corals found in the islands.

However, with more than 24 hours of a Category 5 storm, lots of the massive corals will be scoured by sand and rubble or broken loose and turned over, Eakin said. This was a catastrophic storm, so the damage to the reefs may be catastrophic as well.

Branching corals, those species that feature numerous tree-like branches, likely sustained the most damage from Dorian, Eakin added but they grow back much more quickly than massive corals.