You know the fishes and can identify the reef critters, but what about the animals that actually form a coral reef? This work features 530 photographs of living specimens and scientific classifications that help identify virtually each species of stony coral, gorgonian, fire coral and black coral inhabiting the tropical western Atlantic.
love that the 3rd edition has info on coral diseases, predation, and mortality. Has the necessary pictures for identification with info on abundance, distribution, size, visual id description, and if there are similarities within species. the algae section has the basics of each species so hopefully a newer edition can expand on them or make a separate book only of algae. Generally very nice for beginners in coral ID and a great addition to a collection of references.