[Coral-List] Coral spawning in Parque Nacional Corales del Rosario near Cartagena Colombia

[maria posse]

Good evening!

The spawning of two species of Montrastrea took place on september 13th
starting at 9:47 p.m (Colombian time), 6 days after full moon.

Last Wednesday, at the Corales del Rosario National Park, more exactly in
the waters in front of the Ministry of the Environment, in a place known as
"Mi acuario", the spawning of two species of Montrastrea (Annularis and
Faveolata) took place in the most spectacular manner, the spawning was
massive and the water gained a reddish color.

At 8:30 p.m we arrived at the marked place where we had previously traced a
submarine route between different colonies of corals. We installed three
stations: between stations one and two the distance was 7 mts, between
stations 3 and 4 the distance was 15 mts. Everything was planned so that we
could videotape the spawning which according to our research, would take
place somewhere between 9 - 10 p.m and would last one hour. We selected
large and healthy colonies of both species of Montrastrea.

6 scuba divers jumped in the water at 9:05 p.m.
Water temp. 27.5 degrees celcius.
Visibility to the horizon 50 feet (mid)
Termoclina: 1.5 mts.
The moon was out at 11:00 p.m (the moon wasn´t out during the spawning).
Wind: North
Depth station 1: 35 feet
Depth station 3: 40 feet

The spawning took place in station 3 eventhough many of the surrounding
smaller colonies of coral were dead. The spawning took place in intervals of
5 - 7 min. The two species spawned almost simultaneously.

The recorded material looks very good! The colours and brilliance are
amazing! The spawning looked like stars falling form the sky. I had never
seen anything quite like that!

We are going to visualize it in order to determine specific times between
spawnings and establish relations, if possible. We will be doing this during
this week and the next, with the help of marine biologists.

The images of the spawning are part of a documentary I'm directing called
"The island" which is about the relationship between popular culture and the
environment, in Isla Grande  at the park.-

I hope the spawning means good news in terms of the survival of the species.

Greetings from Cartagena,
Maria Posse
Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar