Lettuce corals and branching corals such as elkhorn and finger coral are extremely fragile, but even massive boulder corals can be crushed or snapped off and turned upside down to die by a sailboat keel.
White pox disease (also called acroporid serratiosis and "patchy necrosis"), first noted in 1996 on coral reefs near the Florida keys, is a coral disease affecting Elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) throughout the Caribbean.
The Coral | coral | Coral Sea | Coral | Coral Gables | Battle of the Coral Sea | Elkhorn | Precious coral | Elkhorn, Manitoba | Miami Coral Park High School | Elkhorn Creek | Coral Springs, Florida | Coral Reefer Band | Coral Bay | Elkhorn coral | Elkhorn City, Kentucky | Coral Springs | Coral Records | Coral Gables Senior High School | Coral Gables Biltmore Hotel | Coral Browne | Coral (bookmaker) | Coral bleaching | Coral 66 | Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument | USS ''Coral Sea'' | Ramblewood East, Coral Springs, Florida | ''Phyllodesmium briareum'' (one specimen at the bottom of the image) looks very similar to the soft coral | New Theatre (Coral Gables) | King of the Coral Sea |
Two thirds of the island is surrounded by an elkhorn coral barrier reef, providing an ecosystem for over 250 fish species and a variety of other marine life including spotted eagle rays, nurse sharks and lemon sharks, and juvenile Blacktip reef sharks and Whitetip reef sharks.