Reef Life

Look for Delicate antler-like or table-like branches, often pale tan, blue-tipped, or cream in clear shallow water.

Usually Upper fore reef, leeward coral gardens, and wave-flushed hardground where breakage fragments can reattach.

Look for Smooth to finely textured mustard, tan, or olive domes with a bulky, rock-like profile.

Usually Reef margins, fore-reef slopes, and other hard-bottom sectors with enough stability for massive heads to persist.

Look for Dense, bushy clumps with short rounded branchlets and a knobbly surface.

Usually Upper fore reef and coral-head fields, especially where the water is clear and the substrate stays hard.

Look for Hard pink to mauve coatings or crusty veneers on wave-washed reef rock and dead coral skeleton.

Usually Reef crest, pavement, surge channels, and any exposed hard substrate where fleshy algae stay cropped down.

Look for Crisp, segmented green pads growing in clumps between coral heads or in low hard-bottom patches.

Usually Protected to moderately exposed hard substrate, cracks, bommy bases, and reef-flat pockets.

Look for A fluted shell wedged into reef rock with a fleshy mantle spread wide in bright light.

Usually Shallow reef flats, coral heads, lagoon hardground, and upper fore reefs where clear water reaches the mantle.

Look for Soft charcoal-black body, usually stretched along the bottom with the head tucked into a crevice or feeding path.

Usually Reef-flat moat, shallow reef slope, and near hard edges where sand and organic material accumulate.

Look for Dense clusters of short-spined urchins wedged into rounded holes or cracks in limestone and dead coral.

Usually Reef pavement, harbor-side hardground, shallow fore-reef rock, and any pitted limestone surface.

Look for Long, radiating black spines projecting far beyond a small central test, often from cracks or from the edge of pavement.

Usually Leeward fore reef, harbor-side hardground, and creviced limestone where it can shelter between grazing bouts.

Look for Five smooth, thick, cobalt-blue arms radiating from a very small central disk.

Usually Coral heads, reef flats, and slopes where it can crawl slowly over hard substrate and biofilm-covered surfaces.

Look for Paired, brightly colored spiral crowns protruding from a pinhole in living coral.

Usually Living coral colonies, especially massive or encrusting heads that provide permanent shelter for the calcareous tube.

Look for Tangled, chalky worm-like tubes fixed to wave-washed limestone or dead coral; in calm moments a clear feeding net may flash out from the opening.

Usually Reef crest margins, splash-zone ledges, surge channels, and hard outer bench surfaces with constant wash.

Look for Rounded thumb-nail sized shells tucked into cracks or lined along splash-washed bench faces; plicate forms have pale ribs with darker markings.

Usually Upper intertidal crevices, half-tide rock, and reef-edge boulders above the main snorkel zone.

Look for Fast movement before fine detail; crabs dashing across black or pale limestone, then freezing in cracks just above the wash.

Usually Splash zone, outer bench, reef-edge boulders, and harbor rocks at the top of the wash.