[Coral-List] Pillar coral demise

[Eugene Shinn]

Yes Pillar coral is going down hill. It was fairly rare in the 1950s and 
60s when I started diving in the Keys. It was also prized by collectors 
back then. One fellow I knew would break off the pillars and lie them on 
their side so that smaller pillars would began growing upward along its 
length. They They sold better than a single pillar.  Nevertheless that 
was not the major cause of their demise. Many other species as everyone 
knows were also on the down hill slide at the same time. Gene