Mona Island, Cueva del Lirio, AEB trip circa 1982

A land's view from an area near Cueva del Lirio, you can see in the top left corner the ship Alborada that had ran aground on the reef in from of Pajaros Beach

A part of the Asociacion de Estudiantes de Biologia of the Mayaguez Campus of the University of Puerto Rico.  You can see Nelly with a ton of hair, Javier alarmingly young, Jorge without big muscles and Isabel with a goat skull.

In one of the ledges of the cave we found a small nesting colony of  Sooty Terns

There were Sooty terns all around the Island but these were nesting in one  an opening of the cave that faced toward the sea

The inside of the cave is filled with a breathtaking variety of speleothems ranging from cave pearls to massive stalagmites that resemble fantastic animals.

A seaward view from Cueva del Lirio

I visited Cueva del Lirio many times during the 1980's.  My only regret is that I didn't take more photos of the inside of the caves.  Mona Island caves are laberinthic and this makes them unsettling and disorienting for those that are not accostumed to visit caves.  There are many strange and wonderful speleothems inside this cave.  Hopefully one day I will be able to go back to take photos of them.

Mona Island Sardinera Beach coral reef, circa 1982

Acropora palmata coral was abundant all over the Sardinera reef and  it would grow almost up to the water surface near the reef crest.

Many of the Acropora palmata colonies were composed of many thin flat branches

Every crevice in the reef was inhabited by some critter, in this area there were a lot of black urchins

There were, many, many fish around the corals.  Here you can see part of a school of surgeon fish with a few parrot fish tagging along.  These were not tiny fish most were in the 1-2 feet long range.

Here I am hanging for dear life in the strong currents of the reef crest.  You can see that the water is full of small fish.

Among Acropora palmata colonies in water about seven feet deep

Colonies of the finger coral Porites porites extended as far as the eye could see

School of fishes of all sizes filled the reef, here is a group of yellow grunts

In the Sardinera Beach reef there were fish in good numbers all over the place.