With so much to look at underwater it hard enough to keep your eyes looking in one direction. Often when we’re first learning to scuba dive the underwater world is a mystery and our eyes haven’t had time to adjust to the new world. Our imagination easily gets carried away by turtles and fish, stingrays and sharks. And before you know it you’re out of air and the dive is over. 

At this point we can be left saying, the dive was great and the corals were beautiful, but that’s where things get interesting. Corals often become the background for our dives and we don’t have enough time to stop and appreciate each little things. It’s like the expressions, it’s nice to take time to “stop and smell the roses”. Corals are like the little flowers of the sea and it’s fun to take our time and appreciate the diversity of life on the coral reef.

Coral ID can be confusing at first especially because the pictures you see in guide books don’t always look like the corals you find on the reef. One of the easiest ways I know how to identify corals is by first starting to look at the different growth forms like branching, or plating, and then start to narrow down each species.