Large numbers of Acropora palmata grow in shallow water in St. John, US Virgin Islands

Acropora palmata (Lamarck, 1816) is an iconic coral that was once one of the most important reef builders in the Caribbean Sea. Starting in the early 1980s, A. palmata was decimated by white band disease (WBD) and hurricanes (Aronson and Precht 2001), and in 2006 was listed as threatened under the US endangered species act, where it is now being considered for listing as endangered (Federal Register 77 FR 73219). In the US Virgin Islands, A. palmata was common in the 1970s (Gladfelter 1982, Beets et al. 1986), but in St. John in 1990, following decades of attrition from a variety of agents including WBD and Hurricane Hugo (September 1989), no live colonies of this species could be found in shallow water along 4 km of the south coast between Cabritte Horn and White Point (PJ Edmunds pers obs). Historically, the shore between these points has provided suitable habitat for A. palmata (Beets et al. 1986). During 2 wks of field work in 1992, when large swaths of the shore between Cabritte Horn and White Point were visited on snorkel and scuba, three colonies of A. palmata