Scolymia cubensis The time has come to write about my favorite Caribbean coral, the Scolymia. There are two species of Scolymia the smaller solitary disk coral, (Scolymia cubensis), and the large fleshy disk coral (Scolymia lacera). This article is about the smaller…
Corals
Caribbean Coral Diaries: Helioseris cucullata
Helioseris cucullata Helioseris cucullata is a Caribbean coral with a one of a kind appearance. You can easily spot this coral by the cup or nose-shaped corallite that always points to the exterior of the colony. Helioseris has several growth forms and color combination, but…
Caribbean Coral Diaries: Agaricia fragilis
Agaricia fragilis is a species of thin plating coral that can grow in several different forms. This coral has shallow ridges and valleys with a single set of polyps aligned in even rows. Nice evenly arranged rows of polyps are characteristic…
Caribbean Coral Diaries: Agaricia lamarcki
Agaricia lamarcki Agaricia lamarcki is a deep water species of plating coral you will find at the lower end of recreational diving limits. You can often find this delicate sheet encrusting on ledges and rocks around 30m (100 feet deep).…
Caribbean Coral Diaries: Porites furcata
Porites furcata Porites furcata wasn’t a coral we paid much attention to until we came diving in Honduras. On it’s own a few lone branches of P. furcata (Branching Finger Coral) blends right into the reef. But once you see rolling…
Love Coral? Tela Honduras Should Be On Your Bucket List
Dive Tela Honduras For the past two weeks, we’ve had the sincere pleasure of diving with the team from the Tela Marine Research Center, with another three weeks still to come! Tela is a coastal town on the mainland of…
Help Protect The Mesoamerican Reef: Sign The Petition
The Mesoamerican Reef is located in the Caribbean Sea and touches the coasts of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras. As the largest barrier reef in the Western Hemisphere, it stretches nearly 1000 km from the northern tip of the Yucatan…
Caribbean Coral Diaries: Orbicella franksi
Orbicella franksi Orbicella franksi is one of three species of Orbicella coral found in the Caribbean. This species of Orbicella grows into large plates covered in irregularly shaped nodules. The three species of Orbicella are O. faveolata, O. annularis, and O. franksi. The…
New Global Mass Coral Bleaching Database
Despite hundreds of click bait articles shared millions of times around the internet “the reef is dying” or “worst coral bleaching ever”, our global information map of coral bleaching is still quite sparse. While millions are concerned with this prevalent topic,…
Japanese Minister Prepared Emergancy Declaration Over Coral Extinction
Naha Japan The Environment Ministry of Japan has prepared an emergency declaration over coral deaths caused by rising sea temperatures from global warming. In an emergency meeting of experts held in Okinawa Prefecture on Sunday, the ministry inked out the declaration,…