Pocillopora meandrina coral
Pocillopora meandrina coral. American Samoa. Photo courtesy of Dr. Douglas Fenner.
Pocillopora meandrina (sometimes called cauliflower coral) is found in reef coral communities at depths of 1 to 27 meters, commonly on shallow reefs exposed to strong wave action. It is found on most coral reefs of the Indo-Pacific and eastern Pacific, with a range extending from the Seychelles Islands in the Indian Ocean to the west coast of Central America in the eastern Pacific. The species is found in all U.S. Pacific Islands jurisdictions.
Colonies of Pocillopora meandrina are small upright bushes, with branches radiating from the initial point of growth. Branches are flattened and covered by bumps called verrucae. Colonies are usually cream colored but can also be green or pink.
On March 14, 2018, NOAA Fisheries received a petition from the Center for Biological Diversity to list P. meandrina in Hawaiʻi under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The petition requested that the Hawai’i portion of P. meandrina’s range be considered a significant portion of its range/(SPR). However, before we can analyze such specifics of P. meandrina’s range, we must first find that the species is neither endangered nor threatened throughout all of its range. Thus, we interpret the petition as a request to consider the status of P. meandrina throughout its entire range first.
In March 2018, NOAA Fisheries received a petition to list P. meandrina under the Endangered Species Act. Due to a host of threats that have recently worsened, we found that the available information may support the petitioned action, thus we have published a positive 90-day finding and are commencing a range-wide status review of P. meandrina. Based on the status review, a 12-month finding will be published that either concludes that listing is Not Warranted, or that the species should be proposed for listing under the ESA.
ESA Candidate
- Throughout Its Range