Staghorn Coral

Photo: pleahy · © all rights reserved

Hiroshi Point hosts some of the most extensive staghorn acropora stands in FSM, covering broad sections of the 8 to 15 meter plateau in dense thickets that provide nursery habitat for juvenile fish of dozens of species. The coral's fragility makes its abundance here a direct measure of water quality and the absence of destructive fishing — staghorn is among the first coral to disappear when anchoring, dynamite fishing, or water quality decline affect a reef. Researchers from the Pacific Community have used Hiroshi Point as a baseline reference site for healthy FSM coral benchmarks.