[Coral-List] Reefs of Roatan

[Pawlik, Joseph]

Greetings!

Some of you may be interested in a video dive on the coral reefs of the NW side of Roatan, Honduras, that can be found at this YouTube link:

http://youtu.be/1JzdYwO2YGo

These are among the "healthiest" reefs I've seen in the Caribbean, with notably large populations of fishes.
Compare this video tour to a previous one from Conch Reef, Florida Keys - opposite sides of the Caribbean, very different coral cover, but mostly the same community of sponges, dominated by the giant barrel sponge, Xestospongia muta.

Does anyone know the identity of the mobile isopod(?) parasites being attacked by the cleaning neon gobies on the dorsal surface of the black grouper (4:30-5:15)?

Happy viewing!

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Joseph R. Pawlik, Professor,
Dept. of Biology and Marine Biology
UNCW Center for Marine Science
5600 Marvin K Moss Lane
Wilmington, NC  28409
Office:(910)962-2377; Cell:(910)232-3579
Website: http://people.uncw.edu/pawlikj/index.html
PDFs: http://people.uncw.edu/pawlikj/pubs2.html
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