Psychilis monensis Sauleda 1988, a pink flower

There are vast populations of this orchid in Mona Island, between Puerto Rico and Hispaniola.  There is some variation in the color of the flowers.  I found this pink flower deep in the forests of the east part of the island.  Most flowers of this species have either greenish or pale cream or yellow flower segments.

Psychilis monensis Sauleda 1988, a strange flower with unusually shaped floral parts.

The island of Mona, is in the middle of the Mona Channel, this is between the islands of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico.  The whole island is a wildlife reserve.  Although to most people this deserted island looks pristine, this is an illusion.  The island was subjected to different types of exploitation for centuries.  Its native flora and fauna was often severely damaged both by humans and by introduced animals.

But in the latter part of the twenty century the island was left alone to recuperate and nature is healing the scars left by Man.  The island has several species of orchids, the most abundant by far is Psychilis monensis.  I have seen places in the island where these orchids are downright abundant.  In habitat that is in good condition, large plants of this species can be found growing around the bases of shrubs.  But you can also find these orchids growing on the rocks, on cactus and on living or dying trees.

The flowers of this species vary in color and shape, even when you look at a small area, neighboring plants can have flowers that are noticeably different.  When I visit the island I am always on the look for variants that I have not seen before.  In the case of this particular plant, I found it while hiking deep into the interior of the island.  The plant is growing up on a tree but the inflorescence hangs down so that the flowers are at an eye height.

The flower has an asymmetrical lip, in itself this is a curiosity,  But the main oddity is a second small half lip pointing up from the right side of the flower.  None of the other flower segments is quite right.   I was in the spot where this plant grows for only a short time, I was unable to ascertain if this was a single occurrence or that the plant produced all its flowers like this.  Given the difficulty of reaching the spot where this plant grows, it is unlikely another person has come across this plant.  If I have the opportunity I will try to return to the place to see if it normally produces flowers like this.

Caminando por Isla de Mona en pantalones cortos, circa 1984 con la asociación de estudiantes de biología del recinto universitario de Mayaguez

Los pantalones y el calzado, "do not try this at Mona"

Foto usada con permiso de Gerardo Camilo

Hace unos días un amigo comentó sobre unas fotos que tome en Isla de Mona allá para la década de los ochenta y que están en uno de mis álbumes de Facebook.   En la foto, que está arriba, aparezco en la colonia de bobas de patas rojas (Sula sula)  que se encuentra en la cara norte de la Isla de Mona.   Un detalle particular de esta foto es que estoy en pantalones cortos y tenis.   En la siguiente historia explico cómo fue que esto llego a ocurrir.

Como saben los que han visitado Isla de Mona, la vegetación de la isla se distingue por la abundancia de plantas espinosas y venenosas.  No debemos dejar de contar las que aun no siendo ni venenosas ni espinosas, tienen unos tallos y ramas leñosos que te laceran la piel si ocurre un leve roce.  Jamás me habían preguntado cómo era posible que alguien hubiera llegado a un lugar tan remoto de Mona, en pantalones cortos, en unos tiempos en que, para los acampadores, no había nada que se asemejara un camino para llegar al lugar. 

En adición a lo hostil de la vegetación, está el detalle de que la superficie misma del camino está compuesta de caliza erosionada por los elementos y que tiene la forma que se conoce como “diente de perro”.  La caliza “diente de perro” es justamente temida entre los caminantes porque  destroza hasta el calzado más resiste y porque es capaz de infligir heridas cortantes a aquellos que tienen la desgracia de tropezar y caer sobre ella.

¿Entonces, como es posible que en varias ocasiones llegáramos, yo no era el único en pantalones cortos, a la colonia de Bobas sin más protección que unos pantalones cortos y unos tenis?

La razón es que la vegetación en el lado de noroeste de la isla (por lo menos en esos tiempos hace décadas que no paso por ahí) era extraordinariamente baja en estatura por una combinación particular de factores.    El primero de los factores es el viento.  El viento en el lado noroeste de mona viene del mar y es constante y en ocasiones fuerte.  Cuando uno camina al lado mismo del farallón, puede ver a las aves marinas acercarse al mismo desde el mar y ser empujadas por el viento hacia arriba cuando el viento choca con la pared del farallón.    En esta parte de la isla la mayor parte de la superficie es roca caliza, el suelo se encuentra aquí y allá en pequeñas y medianas oquedades en la superficie de la roca.  Es en estos “bolsillos” de suelo donde la mayoría de las plantas puede crecer.    A esto se suman temperaturas altas, resequedad y un nivel de exposición solar que retan severamente la fisiología de la mayoría de las plantas.   Finalmente, no debemos olvidar el impacto de las cabras salvajes.  En ese tiempo las cabras salvajes eran mucho, muchísimo más abundantes de lo que son ahora.  Una de

Ay que añadir que aunque la vegetación era de baja estatura, esto no significaba que algunas las plantas fueran pequeñas.   Recuerdo mi sorpresa al descubrir que algunos árboles habían crecido hacia el lado siguiendo el contorno de las irregularidades del terreno para extender sus ramas.  Por lo tanto, lo que a primera vista parecía ser una serie de arbustos en realidad eran las ramas de un mismo árbol.

Los arbustos, algunos bastante substanciales, estaban separados por extensiones de piedra sin vegetación alguna, eso es, si no contamos a los cactus copo de nieve que en algunas partes crecían en gran profusión en los hoyos de la piedra caliza que tenían una mínima cantidad de suelo.   Un observador cuidadoso podía reconocer en la vegetación trillos de cabras que estas mantenían abiertos por virtud de un constante uso. 

Por todos estos factores, una persona segura en sus pies y con buena condición física, podía recorrer varias millas de la isla en el norte usando pantalones cortos y zapatos totalmente inapropiados para cualquier otra parte de la isla.  Si todo fallaba y la vegetación se tornaba impenetrable, siempre se podía recurrir al trillo de cabras que estaba justo al borde del farallón.   Esta singular ruta casi siempre estaba abierta pero la cercanía del borde del farallón podía causar un cierto nerviosismo hasta en el más valiente.   

Sin embargo, caminar por el noroeste de Mona en pantalones cortos no siempre terminaba bien.  En una de estas caminatas mi amigo Fermín termino con tantas laceraciones en sus piernas que hubo que confeccionar unos pantalones largos usando fundas de basura plásticas para protegerlas de la vegetación ya que el dolor de los cortes era casi inaguantable. 

Hace décadas que no visito el lado noroeste de Mona, así que no se si las cosas han cambiado.  Hace poco más de un mes visite el lado Noroeste y encontré a la vegetación más espesa y quizás más alta de lo que la recuerdo en mis primeras visitas a Isla de Mona en el principio de la década de los 80.  Sin embargo gracias a que se han abierto caminos entre puntos clave de la isla,  caminar es mucho más fácil, además de seguro, que en los tiempos de mis primeras visitas.

Pantalones largos, bien, tenis, mala idea!  Vea la caliza "diente de perro"

Otros camaradas en la cofradía de los pantalones cortos
Foto usada con permiso de Gerardo Camilo

La boba prieta, Sula leucogaster, y la escalera del Terror

Durante la década de los años ochenta estuve visitando la isla de Mona todos los años a fines de mayo y principios de julio con el grupo estudiantil conocido como la asociación de estudiantes de biología del recinto universitario de Mayagüez de la universidad de Puerto Rico.    En uno de esos viajes para principio de los 80 visite la cueva del Lirio.  Justo debajo de una de las ventanas que miran a la costa de Mona, específicamente una desde las que se puede ver la playa de Pájaros, observe que habían unas bobas prietas anidando a cierta distancia debajo de la boca de la cueva (Sula leucogaster).   Las bobas estaban anidando directamente sobre la piedra caliza.  La piedra caliza sobre la que las bobas anidaban es una forma particular causada por erosión por la lluvia y los elementos y está cubierta de hoyos y filos.  Este tipo de caliza de llama “diente de perro” y es justamente temida por su capacidad de lacerar y herir a los que caen sobre ella.  Este tipo de caliza es notorio porque destroza lentamente (y a veces de forma no tan lenta) a todos el calzado que se usa para caminar sobre ella.

Las bobas que vi anidando eran de las primeras que había visto en tierra y me domino el deseo de acercarme a ellas.  Pero no parecía haber forma de bajar de la cueva hasta donde estaban las bobas, que era en una ladera en la cara del farallón.   Uno de mis compañeros me indico que justo debajo de la ventana que daba al mar, había una grieta en la que estaba encajada una viga que se podía usar para bajar a donde estaban las bobas.  La viga tenía unos pedazos de madera clavados a lo largo que formaban una primitiva escalera.  Sin pensarlo dos veces baje por la viga, que tengo que decir, no era exactamente una pieza de madera nueva.  Actualmente la idea de usar una cosa así para bajar unos ocho o diez pies verticales a una ladera rocosa con la consistencia de un enorme guayo,  me llenaría de espanto.  Pero en esos tiempos pesaba 130 libras, tenía la agilidad de un mono y una confianza sin límites en mi capacidad de lidiar con el peligro.

Esta foto fue tomada antes de que encallara el Alborada en Playa de Pajaros

Las bobas reaccionaron a mi llegada con cierto disgusto pero ninguna abandono su nido.   Pude notar que la ladera rocosa era virtualmente inaccesible desde el tope del farallón o la playa.  Me imagino que por eso las bobas la escogieron para anidar.  Para mi sorpresa también vi una iguana de Mona juvenil bastante pequeña, en esos tiempos ver iguanas juveniles no era algo común y corriente.    Le tome fotos a dos de las bobas. Ambas estaba protegiendo a su polluelos del intenso sol.  Siempre me he reprochado que no le tome una foto a la escalera.  Pero quizás fue lo mejor, si mis padres la hubieran visto les habría causado una apoplejía.  Me pregunto si alguno de ustedes, los que leen estas líneas, también recuerdan esa escalera en la cueva del Lirio.  

Domingoa haematochila (Rchb. f.) Carabia 1943, photo from the 2013 visit

In 2012 I visited Mona Island and was able to take photos of Domingoa haematochila plants near the Sardinera camping area.  Unfortunately the plants there were small and in poor shape.  Also my camera died on my second day on the island and I had to use a camera loaned to me by a friend.  I knew there were far larger and healthier plants in the interior of the island, but getting there is a challenging and dangerous endeavour, even for a trained biologist.  Happily I was allowed to tag along a group of botanist that planned to go deep into the island interior.  The botanist set a punishing fast walking pace in their hike because they wanted to get as far into the island as possible before the temperatures became dangerous.  How high did the temperature climb?  By 1:00 pm the bare limestone was at a toasty 136F/58C, our boots were themselves at 100F/38C.  The hair at the top of the head of one of the botanist was at 103F/40C.  It was some strenous walking and I spent most of the time drenched in sweat, but I managed to get some good photographs of large plants with flowers in good condition (with my new camera Yeah!).

The conditions in the limestone plateau of Mona Island are incredibly harsh for human beings but some orchids have evolved the capacity to grow and even thrive under them.  However there are spots here and there on the island where the ecosystem provides for microclimates that are less extreme, it is in these spots that Domingoa grows best.  However you can find plant of Domingoa in places in the island where conditions are difficult and don't allow for large plants.

This plant is very rare in cultivation locally.  Mostly due to the fact that local growers prefer large flowered orchids but also due to the fact that most growers here are unfamiliar with native orchids.  Given that this plant grows in a habitat the is inimical to human life, it doesn't at present faces any threat to its survival.

Psychilis monensis some observations of plants "in situ"

This form has a flat open flower with green sepals and petals

Cream colored flowers

Yellowish nodding, slightly cupped flowers
 with lips whose sides curl back

Relatively shorter lip on green flower

An inflorescence with five open flowers

A very pale form with cupped sepals

Seed capsule

The orchid Psychilis monensis is endemic of the island of Mona.  Mona Island sits in the Mona channel which located is between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico.  Mona Island is a deserted island only inhabited by a few personnel of the department of natural and environmental resources of Puerto Rico.  It is visited by fishermen hunters and campers but lately, mainly due to a number of deaths on the island caused by sunstroke, dehydration and accidents, the number of visitors has reduced significantly.  Mona Island is part of the United States, it was ceded to the nation after the Hispano-American war along with Puerto Rico and other islands of the Puerto Rican Bank.

The main terrain in Mona Island is a flat limestone plateau mostly at an elevation of one to two hundred feet above the sea.  The island receives a comparatively low quantity of rain, 30 inches a year, and most of the vegetation is composed of drought resistant plants.  The limestone plateau is a particularly challenging place for plants to grow due the harsh conditions that prevail on it.   Most of the ground in the plateau consists of bare, rain eroded limestone, this terrain can severely damage even the most sturdy footwear faily quickly.  There are trees in the plateau but they are small and occur where there is a pocket of soil in the rocky terrain.  Sunlight is fierce and temperatures high which makes dehydration and sunstroke a constant threat.

In these surroundings, which not in the least resembles what most people think as the ideal orchid growing environment,  Psychilis monensis not only lives but thrives.   In certain parts of the islands plants are downright abundant.  I visited Mona Island in July 2012 and one of my goals was to see this orchid.  I went for a short walk to look for orchids about an hour before sunset, when temperatures are tolerable and sunlight is considerably reduced in intensity.  I found that in a particular area of low shrubs these orchids were exceedingly common.  Many shrubs had Psychilis growing in the middle of them, some of the plants were large specimens.  In the largest plants almost every pseudobulb had an inflorescence.

Psychilis plants were growing everywhere in this area, on the ground, on cacti, on dead or dying trees and on the bare rock.  However plants exposed all the time to full sun were stunted, with reddish leaves and few if any inflorescences.  Plants growing in soil seemed in worse shape than either those in bare rock or growing as epiphytes.  In fact a number of the plants that were located directly in contact with soil were dying or had dead parts.   The largest and healthiest plants were those located one or two feet over the ground on a shrub that shielded the plant from the worst of the midday sunlight and yet allowed a considerable amount of sunlight to pass through.

The flowers of Psy. monensis are surprisingly variable.  I heard a presentation where a student that had done some field research argued that this was due to the fact that they don’t give a reward to pollinators and they need to have variability so that potential pollinators won’t learn to avoid them before pollination is affected.   Unfortunately my camera stopped working on my second day in Mona so I have only a few photos of the flowers of this orchid, taken on a small area near the Sardine Beach.  Nevertheless I saw a bit of the variation that one can see in the whole island.  In the flowers I saw the floral parts could be short or long, perpendicular to the lip or almost parallel to it, green, pinkish white or pale yellow.  The lip could be richly colored, white, long, short, flat or with its sides recurved back.  Some flowers were nodding with the lip hanging straight down and others held the lip almost horizontal.  The inflorescences can bloom repeatedly, I saw one with evidence of having bloomed six or seven times.

No other orchid compares in abundance with Psychilis in Mona island.  You can find a few plants of Domingoa here and there, Oeceoclades in forested areas of the coast and Vanilla, Tolumnia and Broughtonia in particular locales in the interior of the island, but all of the previous orchids have a patchy distribution and, when compared to Psychilis, take an effort to find.  I have read accounts of orchid collectors from the eighteen and nineteen century that remark on finding orchids in the hundreds and even in the thousands growing all over the landscape.  In Mona Island you can still see a glimmer of how a pristine orchid population looked to those early explorers.

 Happily the orchids of Mona Island are pretty safe from human depredations and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future.  The main thing that protects these orchids is that the average orchidist reaction to the flowers of Psychilis is probably “meh”.   The relatively small flowers of Psychilis can hardly compete, in the eyes of an average orchidist, with the very many brightly colored, large flowered hybrids that are currently the norm in the orchid market.  I know that visitors occasionally take plants, but this collecting doesn’t seem to make even the tiniest noticeable dent in this orchid population and must be very light indeed as you can find large plants at a few minute walk from the camping grounds, something that would not happen if any amount of collecting was happening as usually it is the largest and most handsome plants the ones that are collected first.  Without a doubt probably almost all of the plants that have been taken from the island have died.  In all my years of orchid growing I have only seen a single plant of Psychilis monensis growing successfully out of Mona Island.  It was twenty years ago in Cupey, in the garden of a non-orchidist that had tied the plant to a wooden post in his garden when he had arrived back from a visit to Mona and had subsequently given it absolutely no care or attention to it.  I have heard that there are a few plants in cultivation, but unlike Psy. kranzlinii, Psy. macconellia and Psy. krugi which show up regularly in orchid shows, I have yet to see a Psy.  monensis at a show.  My suspicion is that Psychilis monensis just can’t survive the way in which most orchidist treat their plants as it is radically different from what these plants experience in their natural habitat.

This Psychilis is so common in its habitat because it is supremely well adapted to conditions that few other plants can tolerate.   In the coastal areas of Mona, where conditions are much more moderate you are hard pressed to find plants of Psychilis growing anywhere.   These plants have adapted to high levels of sunlight, strong desiccating winds and weeks or even months without any measurable rain.    Move a plant such as this to a shady, humid spot with stagnant air where it gets drenched with water every two or three days and im all probably it won’t survive, particularly if its roots are buried in bark and kept wet all the time.  So my advice is simple, leave these plants in its natural habitat.

Large plant with many inflorescences

A common hazzard in Mona Island

Psychilis monensis inflorescenses can rebloom several times

Domingoa haematochila (Rchb. f.) Carabia 1943, in situ in Mona Island in the Caribbean

This flower opened in the morning after a spell of strong rain

A whole plant view.  This plant had five inflorecenses, two with flowers.

For many years, in the eighties and nineties, I used to visit Mona Island on a yearly basis.   One of the things that lured me to Mona was that it is full of many interesting species of plants and animals.   I was particularly intrigued by the orchids of Mona.  The environment of Mona Island is not one that most people would associate with orchids. 

Most of the island is a plateau composed of limestone.  Here and there are pockets of soil in which shrubs and trees eke out an existence but most of the surface is bare limestone.  Rainfall is seasonal and can be scant, weeks, sometimes months, can go without measurable rain.   Temperatures can rise over 100F out in the plateau, I still remember my surprise (on a previous visit) when a thermometer I carried with me on a walk during the hottest time of the day measured 120 F.   The dominant vegetation on the plateau is shrubs, cactus and low trees.  There are places where the limestone has eroded to the point that sunken depressions have formed and accumulated a layer of soil where more substantial trees can grow.  But almost all of these depressions are small.  One of the largest one, the Bajura de los Cerezos has large trees and is moister than the surrounding terrain.  Domingoa in Puerto Rico lives in this severe but beautiful environment.

The last time I visited Mona Island, around 1996, I found many stemmed plants of Domingoa in the moister environment of the “bajuras”.  I had also found plants in the hot and very sunny plateau, but those were much smaller and much less common than the ones in moister surroundings.   In particular I found a good sized plant within easy walking distance of the camping area.   Sadly, the photos I took of the plant at this time were not good.

I visited Mona again between the 20 and 24 of July of 2012.  It was a wonderful experience.  One of the first things I did was to seek out the Domingoa plant to see if still survived.   I went looking for the place where I had seen it last and sure enough the plants were there.  I was dismayed by the fact that all the plants I found had developing buds or spent flowers.  Not a single one had an open flower.  However, one of the nights there was a spell of rain, the next day I found an open flower.  The plant I found had five inflorescences, one with a newly opened flower another with a bud just opening and one with a tiny developing flower bud.

Unlike many orchids Domingoa is pretty secure from collecting pressures.  Most of the island is off-limits to visitors and, even in those places where hiking is allowed, high temperatures, fierce sunlight and hordes of mosquitos tend to keep away all but the very hardiest of hikers.  I don’t know if Domingoa plants are in cultivation on the island of PR, I don’t recall ever seen plants exhibited in local orchid shows.  Domingoa haematocheila is reported from Cuba, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. Ackerman in  his book An Orchid Flora of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands reports that the forms from Mona are vegetatively much smaller than the forms from Cuba.

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, the amazing sight of waterfalls on a dry deserted island, AEB field trip 1980.

Water falling from the 200 feet tall cliffs in the area of Pajaros beach

We tried to fend off the water with anything that we could find

We had to take refuge in the area of Cueva del Caballo since the rain swamped the camping area.

Mona Island is a deserted island usually most remebered by hikers for its dryness and its endless vistas of dry fearsomely thorny scrub.  Althought the island can have periods of rainlessness that lasts months, from time to time it does gets hit with the great weather systems that make their way from Africa to the Caribbean.  In this case the Association of Biology Students was camping in Sardinera beach and decided to go to the other side of the island, to Pajaros Beach, about six miles away as the crow flies.  During the night we were camping in Pajaros beach a tropical wave or depression unexpectedly dumped an enormous amount of water over us (I know this is almost beyond belief but at the time we didn't have cellphones or even (gasp) Tweeter).  When we woke up the next day there was water everywhere and the astonishing sight of waterfalls falling from the central plateau of the island.  The previous day the island had been bone dry and now it everything was soaking wet.  We took refuge in a small cave nest to the Cueva del Caballo and made jokes as we shivered and tried to make the best of it.  I have gone back to Mona Island many times over the years but I have never again witnessed this spectacle again.

Mona Island, cave pearls, circa 1984, AEB field trip.

These are cave pearls from a cave in the Island of Mona, a small island about fifty miles to the west of the Island of Puerto Rico.  Mona Island is composed of a huge slab of limestone that rose from the sea about a million years ago.  There are two types of limestone in Mona Island, caliza lirio, the top layer, is relatively easily dissolved by rain water, the bottom layer is dolomite which is harder and resists dissolucion by rain much better.  In the boundary between the two layers of limestone you get enormous caves which can have hundred of thousands of square meters of interior space.  The easiest caves to access are all around the coast of the island. Almost all were severely altered by man early last century to extract huge quantities of guano that were deposited in the caves in the past.  The caves in Mona Island are laberinthic with many side passages and cavities going in all directions and interconnecting in all sort of ways.  They are full of a large variety of stalagmites and other speleothems, some of which seem to defy gravity.  Cave pealrs can be found in large numbers in some of the caves but they are rarely as white and pristine as these ones.  As you can see they are not necessarily round, they can be square, triangular and irregularly polyhedral.  From the empty niches you can tell that some have been taken away from the cave.  These pearls have no commercial value and are best enjoyed in their natural setting.  Hopefully these ones are still in the cave where I saw them.

The goats on Mona Island back in 1979, ABE field trip

A startled goat running at full tilt through the scrubby vegetation in alocation a few hundred feet south of the Mona lighthouse

Part of herd of about thirty that crossed the road from Pajaros beach to the lighthouse

Two goats grazing on the median strip of the road from Pajaros beach to the lighthouse.

My first trip to Mona Island was back in 1979.  It was with the Asociation of Biology Students of the Mayaguez campus of the University of Puerto Rico.  This trip was an important event in my life as I made new friends and decided to go to study to the Mayaguez campus.  I took many photos in that trip, sadly they have become a bit deteriorated.  But they still provide a window to a time where Mona Island was not a popular destination and few people visited it.  In this trip I saw a large number of goats.  About seventy goats crossed the road ahead of me during a half hour hike between Pajaros beach and the lighthouse, undoubtably there were many times this number lurking in the vegetation to the sides of the road.  The goats seemed untroubled by our presence  and some even spent some time grazing on the median strip of the road even as we approached them.   The goats were also plentiful around the lighthouse and I even managed to get fairly close to a few before they took flight.  In the decades that have passed since my trip hunting became much more popular and large numbers of hunters would visit the island to hunt for goats and pigs.  The goat population plummeted and it became harder and harder to see them.  The last time I was in Mona, about ten years ago, you had to hike for hours away from human haunted areas to be able to glimpse even one.

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.

Mona Island, exploring the Acropora palmata reef, circa 1982

Acropora palmata, notice the extreme clarity of the water

Various types of coral, In the center of the photo Jorge Saliva, notice the puny arm lacking the basketball sized muscles that later appeared there

The reef crest was haunted by an unbelievable quantity of fish

There was coral all over the place

I took these few photos of the coral at the reef that borders the Sardinera beach in Mona Island.  At the time visiting this reef was for me a new and unbelievable exciting thing.  I took just a few photos because I was too busy drinking deeply from the incredible experiece of snorkeling there.   There were so many things to see and explore that it was like visiting an alien city in outer space.  The diversity of corals, fish and invertebrates made this place a dream experience for a biologist that had read all about them in the books but had not until them too much oportunity to see them in the flesh.  I have been told that the reef I visited so many years ago no longer exists, that most of the Acropora has died, that there are much less fish and algae reigns supreme.  I vividly remember marveling at a school of large parrot fish, two feet long feeding in water that was less than three feet deep.  These photos stand as a testament of the beauty that was and hopefully some day will again be.