resulted in mass mortality of a number of coral species, particularly the
branching Acropora spp. (Riegl, 2002; Sheppard and Loughland, 2002;
Purkis and Riegl, 2005; Foster et al., 2013). Current coral communities
in the northeastern nearshore environment are often patchy in distribution,
relatively small in size, and consist of few species with the most common
being Porites harrisoni.