Identifying AGRRA Corals: Part 1

Mound and Boulder Corals

Stony Corals

Stony corals have soft polyps above a stony (calcareous) skeleton. Most reef-building corals form colonies of interconnected polyps.

The shapes, sizes and colour of the polyps and colonies are used to help identify corals.

Coral Skeletons

The shapes
and sizes of polyps are also visible in their underlying skeletons.

Septa are conspicuous vertical partitions in the polyp wall.

What to Look for Underwater

Colony shape – massive (= mound, columnar, heavy plates), crust, plate, branching

Colony size range – small to big

Colony surface – bumpy, smooth, ridged

Polyp size – small to big

Polyp shape – round, elliptical, irregular, Y-shaped

Polyp colour – brown, tan, yellow, olive, green, red

Septal shape – fat, thin; smooth, toothed

Coding Corals in AGRRA Surveys

Use the CARICOMP-based coral codes.

The coral code for a genus (or occasionally a species complex) is the first 4 letters of its genus name and should be used whenever you are unsure of a coral’s species identity:      ORBI = Orbicella

The coral code for a species is the first letter of the genus name followed by the first 3 letters of its species name:     OFAV = Orbicella faveolata

Codes are shown before names appear on the introductory slide for species that are commonly recorded in AGRRA surveys.