Acropora Palmata，埃尔克霍恩珊瑚是典型的加勒比海珊瑚礁物种。该物种曾经是如此丰富，以至于整个珊瑚礁被称为“棕榈区”，重要的是要知道棕榈塔地区在哪里，因为它们的坚固分支很容易沉入船只。
不幸的是，在大型“树”上造船的风险Acropora Palmatais a long forgotten memory. This species, once the iconic coral for the Caribbean, is now the poster-child for coral reef decline. With a natural abundance reduced to one percent of its former glory, Elkhorn coral is truly deserving of all federal and international protections of an endangered species.
Despite its rapid and dramatic decline in the 20th century, there are still some places in the Caribbean where Elkhorn coral is holding on, and still dominating certain regions of the reef. We spent quite a bit of time working on such a Palmata Reef at Rincon, Puerto Rico nearly ten years ago, but it’s been so long since we’ve seen a good stand of this quasi-mythical coral.
The thing is, you can still findAcropora Palmata到处都在生长，但通常只是一个小残留物，一个大型的包裹或一个发展不良的分支，只是试图坚持生活。值得庆幸的是，在我们最近访问多米尼加共和国时，我们对为什么这种珊瑚如此特殊的珊瑚色覆盖了波浪般的浅礁时如此特殊。
在我们对多米尼加共和国的潜水之旅中，我们真的很期待探索一些中间深度礁石，我们知道可以找到加勒比海最独特的珊瑚。Montastrea cavernosa,Meandrina，，，，AgariciaandMycetophylliaare all species of corals from the tropical west atlantic which have no real counterparts in the Indian and Pacific Oceans so these are the coral targets we really looked forward to seeing and photographing.
值得庆幸的是，看到并记录了加勒比海鲜为人知的珊瑚取得了完全的成功，在某些关键地点进行了几次潜水，这使我们面对面的稀有活珊瑚目录面对面。随着我们的主要珊瑚照片目标，我们将重点转移到了浅礁水域，并着手看看我们周围可以在Punta Cana周围找到哪些果皮。
We connected with the Puntacana Foundation to visit their coral nurseries where they’ve had immense success growing and propagating huge quantities of Caribbean staghorn coral,Acropora cervicornis。Seeing huge thickets of completely healthy staghorn coral was such a refreshing sight, and we are truly impressed with how well the Puntacana Foundation has been able to create and outplant countless frags on nearby and neighboring reefs.
但是，在我们的脑海中，我们无法停止思考加勒比礁的精神动物，即埃尔克霍恩珊瑚。我们得到了一些英特尔，说“一些殖民地”距离秋天的珊瑚苗圃不远，但是这个帕尔马塔据点的范围并未被彻底传达给我们。我们希望在冲浪区看到一些殖民地，以有限的能力保持和生长。
值得庆幸的是，我们很惊讶地看到，蓬塔卡纳（Punta Cana）仍然存在一个真正的棕榈区域，健康的埃尔克霍恩珊瑚殖民地在冲浪区域至少占据了至少一百英尺的占主导地位。有足够的Acropora Palmata一会儿,生长在这个区域swimming in the center of it all we could see was Elkhorn coral in every direction.
For a brief moment in time it as possible to take the sight of Acropora palmata, multiply it by an order of magnitude, and imagine what the historic palmata zone might have been likebeforethis coral was nearly wiped out. If seeing fields of staghorn was refreshing, then seeing a strong healthy stand ofAcropora Palmata接近宗教经历，我们迫不及待地想到下次我们遇到埃尔克霍恩珊瑚的小森林。
