C-1 



Thirteen species of scleractinia are known to occur, 

 below 100 meters, in the study area (Cairns, manuscript). In 

 contrast to many tropical shallow-water stony corals which are 

 hermatypic (possessing symbiotic zooxanthellae) , all the deep- 

 water species are ahermatypic (not possessing symbiotic 

 zooxanthellae) . The scleractinians encountered in this study 

 range from small delicate solitary corals to large branching 

 colonies. These corals reproduce sexually having a motile 

 planula larva. Some species also reproduce by asexual budding. 

 The planulae of all of these species initially attach to hard 

 substrates. Subsequently, several of these species detach by 

 not reinforcing their initial attachment point. As the coral 

 grows and becomes top heavy it breaks off and lies on the surface 

 of the sediment (Cairns, manuscript). 



Six of these thirteen stony coral species were found during 

 this study. The taxonomy of scleractinians is based on the fine 

 featured characteristics of their skeletons. Many of these 

 distinguishing characters are microscopic and can not be seen 

 in the photographs taken during this survey. As a result some 

 of the identifications are quite tentative, particularly with 

 regard to species of the genus Flabellum. Another problem to be 

 recognized in surveying populations of these corals is that several 

 of the species are too small to be reliably visible in photo- 

 graphs. The following is a brief description of the six 

 scleractinia found in this study. 



