Abstract

Coral reefs cover less than 1% of the ocean but are home to 25% of marine species. The health of coral reefs is important to our island’s ecosystem and local businesses that rely on tourism. The purpose of my project is to test if coral is bigger in high or low energy environments. A high energy beach is a beach with strong currents and waves that are typically 4 feet or more. I chose Judith’s Fancy because it is close to me and it has lots of current and waves. A low energy beach is a beach with not much current and little waves. I figured Salt River would be perfect for this. It is an area that is protected from the wind by a small point. I snorkeled around in search of coral at each beach. I took pictures of the coral with my GoPro and measured it by counting the branches of coral. In the end, the coral at the high energy beach had more branches than the low energy beach. When I was looking for coral at the low energy beach I saw lots of dead coral on the seafloor. I wonder how the coral died? Further studies could study that dead coral and see what could've happened to it.