Based on the higher coral coverage of Pocillopora colonies and
the availability of natural fragmented corals, four sites were
selected: Zona de Restauración (ZR) and Cueva del Muerto (CM)
located at Isla Larga, and at Isla Redonda, Plataforma Pavonas (PP)
and Amarradero (AM) (Fig.1). A total of 189 coral fragments of three
different species w3e5 cm long were hand collected with SCUBA,
Pocilopora damicornis (n ¼ 36), P. capitata (n ¼ 60) and P. verrucosa
(n ¼ 93). In situ each sample was inspected and those fragments
without evidence of bleaching, dead tissue or a high amount of
sponge coverage were selected and re-attached within the same
area of collection using the plastic cable tie method (Edwards,
2010) on both artificial and natural substrates.