Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 30, Number 9, 1 September 2013 — Table coral discovery [ARTICLE]

Table coral discovery

Scientists on a training dive off 0'ahu's South Shore discovered table coral, a species eommon across the tropical Pacific but absent in the main Hawaiian Islands. The finding was published in the Bulletin ofMarine Science in July. Known as Acropora cytherea, the species is recorded in the main Hawaiian Islands' fossil records of "tens of thousands of years ago" but later disappeared probably due to cooling water temperatures, said Randall Kosaki, National Oeeanie and Atmospheric Administration deputy superintendent of Pap-

ahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. The flat-topped, pink-ish-brown coral is the "dominant reef-building coral" elsewhere in the Pacific, he said. The O'ahu coral, estimated to be 14 years old, was found in November at a depth of 60 feet. "If it becomes established here, it ean add to our diversity not just by

adding one coral species," Kosaski said. "Other species ean eome with it," such as the chevron butterfly fish that feeds on it and a crab that depends on it for shelter.