Coral Spawnning 2010

Coral Spawning 2010

We have posted the expected dates and times based on last year's observations on the Carmabi website. The schedule can be found at: http://www.researchstationcarmabi.org/ and then click on "coral spawning dates 2010" which you'll find on the left under "latest news".

There have also been some updates on the coral ID pages. Carmabi compiled a series of pictures that show combinations of corals that are often mistaken for one another. Because terminology to describe each species is often subjective (i.e. has larger polyps or smaller ridges) having both species in one picture might help to get a better idea of how such closely related/ similar looking "species" can be distinguished from one another. Corals are now divided in four main groups (Montastraea, Agaricidae, Brain-looking corals and the Rest). All identifications are based on commonly used species names here on Curacao. This overview is a work in progress (and I welcome suggestions on how to shape this picture collection into a more user-friendly format), but I thought it would be useful to throw it out as it is.

The four aforementioned coral groups can also be found at Carmabi's research website: http://www.researchstationcarmabi.org/

Click on "Publications" and a drop-down menu will appear with all the coral combinations for all four coral groups.

The following links take you directly to each group:

For Montastraea: http://www.researchstationcarmabi.org/publications/coral-id-curacao-montastraea

For Agaricidae: http://www.researchstationcarmabi.org/publications/coral-id-curacao-agaricidae

For "Brain"corals: http://www.researchstationcarmabi.org/publications/coral-id-curacao-braincorals

For "The Rest": http://www.researchstationcarmabi.org/publications/coral-id-curacao-the-rest

Hopefully you'll find this overview and the spawning schedule useful and have lots of fun diving.