This represents one year's worth of growth off of West Palm Beach. Note the sponges and soft corals are in excess of 18 inches. By this time, hard corals have only achieved about 1 inch of growth. Of interest, the French angelfish pictured (We call her Vicky because she has a V notched out of her tail) has been a documented resident on the reef for over 9 months. Also note the two snapper and porkfish. On this dive, we counted over 30 species of fish including Snook, Lane Snapper, Mangrove Snapper, Grey Snapper, Porkfish, Atlantic Spadefish, Sharpnosed Puffers, Porcupine Puffers, Neon Gobies, French Angelfish, Grey Angelfish, Blue Angelfish, Queen Angelfish, Sand Gobies, Porgys, Jewfish, Grouper, Grunts, Hogfish, Spanish Hogfish (juv.), Parrotfish, Wrasse, and many species of juvenile fish. Crustecean spotted were lobsters, banded coral shrimp, crabs, camelback cleaning shrimp, arrow crabs and hermit crabs. Other invertebrate included sea squirts, scallops, tube worms, Christmas tree worms, feathery hydroids, finger corals (hard), and numerous species of soft corals and sponges.
