RIGHT: Scolymia is a solitary polyp that can
be over 10 centimetres wide, appearing in
every colour of the rainbowMIDDLE: This cluster of mustard hill corals,
Porites asteroides, range from shades of
yellow, green and brownBOTTOM: Mycetophyllia, cactus corals, are
among my favourite Caribbean species,
and nowhere are they more colourful than
in Tela
IMAGES: Nicole HelgasonWhat’s exciting about
Tela is the unusually
high number of black
long-spined sea urchins,
Diadema antillarumWhat I have seen is that scuba divers,
dive professionals, and tour operators
promote big fish and tiny critters.
You will see dive trips promoting whale
sharks, manta rays, turtles, colourful
nudibranchs, obscure octopuses, and
fancy dancing shrimp. But what
about corals?
Corals often get lumped together
under one generic term, “coral reef”.
But this single term is far too
general to describe a vibrant, diverse
community with hundreds of individual
species. Once you start recognising
what separates each species and learn
how to identify a few, your perception
of the underwater landscape will
expand exponentially.
Sharing this vision and ability to
experience the reef with new eyes is
what keeps me going.
A BLOG FOR SCUBA DIVERS
In March 2016, I started my own
blog dedicated to sharing my
underwater experience while bringing
attention to scuba diving and coral
reefs. This is how I came up with the
name for my website, ReefDivers.io.
The vision was to build a community
of divers who deeply appreciate corals.
One of the projects I am proudest
of is my recently published Caribbean
Coral Identification guide. At the
beginning of 2017, I set out to
photograph and identify all the species
of Caribbean coral and besides a
few cryptic species, I managed to
photograph some exceptional colonies
and discovered some incredible reefs
while diving in Honduras.