Scleractinian corals collected during 1998 from the Dampier Archipelago, Western Australia

Abstract

During this study, 14 new records of zooxanthellate scleractinian coral species were recorded from the Dampier Archipelago, Western Australia. This brings the total number of these corals for the Dampier Archipelago to 229 species from 57 genera. The Dampier Archipelago is placed second only to Ashmore Reef in terms of number of coral species for a Western Australian reef. High species richness did not necessarily mean high coral cover. The first reported case of a hard coral containing mature ova during spring on the west coast of Australia is described. A complete updated list of azooxanthellate scleractinian corals recorded from the Dampier Archipelago is also presented (25 taxa in 6 families).