Sunday, October 4, 2009

Video showing the newly-discovered coral off the Town of Palm Beach

From Tom Wranke, Surfrider Foundation:

This newly-filmed video was made to document and help save the recently discovered colonies of staghorn coral off the Town of Palm Beach. Many colonies were found to be flourishing, and one area was estimated to be hundreds of feet long. In 2006 staghorn coral was included for protection under the Endangered Species Act, since more than 90 percent of it has died in the last 25 years. But this portion of reef was not included as designated habitat since it was not believed to exist here. It was discovered during an initial search in areas not frequented by divers, and is now being documented and mapped in numerous locations just off the Town of Palm Beach.