[Coral-List] Spawning Flower Garden Banks

EricHugo at aol.com EricHugo at aol.com
Tue Aug 26 14:35:49 EDT 2003


Hi GP:

In addition to the report you provided the list, I'd also throw in two 
comments.

Regarding the "lackluster" spawning this year, I believe there was some 
specualtion that the minimal hurricane that passed nearby days prior to the 
spawning may have created conditions that factored into the reduction in the numbers 
and timing of corals during this spawning event. I am curious if other 
researchers have had similar observations in the past if a storm had occurred 
immediately or recently prior to a spawning event.

Second, that the statement "branching corals of the genus Acropora are not 
present" is only partly correct given the single colony discovered of A. palmata 
earlier this year. In fact, having tagged and photographed it starting from 
its discovery (James Wiseman), in May, and now again in August, it appears to 
have grown in area at least 200% (GP, sending them to you and Emma via CD 
tomorrow).

Eric Borneman
University of Houston
Dept. of Biology



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