Coral Garden

A small “coral garden” comprised of about seven different coral species sits on the ocean floor at Playa Melones, Puerto Rico, assembled by OCEANOS instructor Sammuel Suleiman to protect an endangered species of coral. On the far left of the coral garden is a yellow symmetrical brain coral (Pseudodiploria strigosa) with a stark white spot in the center: a clear sign of white plague disease. Just behind the symmetrical brain coral is the endangered coral Dendrogyra cylindrus, more commonly referred to as pillar coral (the dark brown, fuzzy mound), and the long spines of black sea urchin (Diadema antillarum).