Rock Key - Page 7

This coral fragment is an excellent candidate for a coral nursery because it has ended up lodged on a rubble bottom where it will likely get tossed about and buried.There were several broken fragments of very healthy coral observed on this snorkel. The most likely cause of this type of fragmentation is snorkeler damage.




RKB14 06/180/01 image 19
The significance of the image to the right is that the small elkhorn coral colonies grew from spats or from fertilized coral eggs. This is the result of coral spawning that takes place once every year. There are signs of coral predation by snails or the start of white coral disease on two of the small colonies.


RKB14 06/18/01 image 20
   

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