While skimming some literature we came across the coral name Acropora rongelapensis, which we had never heard before. A few minutes of sleuthing and the original description provided us with all the details of this new Acropora species described in 2004. We’ve always found the “deepwater” Acropora types to be quite fascinating and this species is quite beautiful in it’s own right. Not only is this species endemic to the Rongelap Atoll of the northern Marshall Islands, a survey of 87 sites at four atolls came up with this species only once!
Holy crap that is rare. This species does appear to be a deepwater specialist as it was only found in lagoons of Rongelap Atoll in 90 feet of water. Although there is a coral farm on the marshall islands, we wouldnt hold our breath waiting for them to go collect this species from that one specific location. For more information on this new Acropora species check out the original description (pdf link). Photo above by Silvia Pinca.
