Coral Farm Frame, Over Cyanobacteria

A square frame of roughly 100 elkhorn and staghorn corals drifts in the water of Playa Melones, Puerto Rico, above a sandy sea floor dotted with sea grass and fuzzy balls of cyanobacteria. This particular frame belongs to the Sociedad Ambiente Marino, a marine conservation organization that takes loose coral and anchors them into coral farms such as this one, to grow and mature before being replanted into damaged or vulnerable reefs. The cyanobacteria littering the sea floor is unnatural; likely caused by a land-based source of pollution leaching into nearby waters.