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Finger coral

Porites porites

Description:

Finger coral found on a lagoon formed by the barrier reef of Adicora. Some corals were found over free rocks but most of the Porites population is found on a frame mixed with seagrass (Thalassia testudinum) that marks a division line between the seagrass meadow and the coral side of the lagoon, where most rocks and the first patches of corals can be observed. The last two pictures show rocks with growing Finger coral, the third picture's coral was attached to the ground but wasn't covered by water because of the very low tides, the second pictures shows the frame of coral and seagrass, and the first picture shows a "living" Porites covered by a thin layer of water. It was rare to find a coral with active polyps because it was already daylight and corals are known for night activity.

Habitat:

Shallow lagoon area with extensive meadows where tides don't grow higher than 50cm (approximately). On this part of the lagoon the hydrodynamic force of the waves is not strong. For the first three pictures the tide was extremely low -it looked like walking over dry land- with very few 'spots' of clear water, whilst on the last two pictures the tide was higher and the water was mostly dark due to bad weather conditions.

Notes:

The first three pictures were taken on March 21st and the rest on March 7th. Both this visits are for my graduate project where I study the conservation state of this reef. The pictures were taken between 8:00am and 10:00am (The living coral picture was taken around 8:30am), because at that time the tide was starting to rise and making it difficult to take a good shot. The first three pictures show corals attached to the ground, the last two were growing over rocks I could take out of the water for photographic archive. This rocks and others I saw were returned to the water immediately after taking the pictures and no coral was extracted from its habitat.

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1 Comment

Gerardo Chavarri
Gerardo Chavarri 7 years ago

Excelentes fotos.
Me encantaría que pudieras compartirla con Mission Venezuela.
http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/8574...

Judi705
Spotted by
Judi705

Falcón, Venezuela

Spotted on Mar 21, 2015
Submitted on Mar 30, 2015

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