Orbicella faveolata
A threatened Caribbean coral recorded by NOAA
“I grow very slowly, only about one centimetre a year. But I have been here for a long time, building the reef little by little. My body grows like a big round dome, and small sea animals live and hide around me. For hundreds of years, corals like me helped shape the reef. Then disease came, and the water grew too warm. Parts of me began to die, piece by piece. What took so long to build started to break apart. I still try to make new life after the full moon, but I grow slowly, and the sea is changing fast. If I disappear, the reef will lose a shape it has known for hundreds of years.”