Elkhorn Coral in Cozumel

Thick flattened branches spreading like the antlers of an elk, golden-brown, always in shallow high-energy water.

Quick ID

Where You Will See It In Cozumel

Elkhorn Coral works the 3 to 26 foot band. On this island that means the sheltered west-coast reefs, and the shallow east-side entries when the sea is flat — these are the sites where the depth and the habitat line up for it.

Without a boat. It is worth looking for at Punta Morena, Tikkila Shallow and Chen Rio — all shore entries, so you dive them on your own schedule.

On an ordinary beginner boat dive. It should be within reach at Molas Shallow and El Cielo. No advanced certification needed.

Conditions change the odds more than the site does — the current, the time of day and how much the group has already stirred up the sand. Ask your guide what they have been seeing that week.

Behaviour

Once the dominant shallow-reef builder across the Caribbean, elkhorn was reduced by more than ninety per cent from the 1980s by white-band disease, bleaching and storms. Surviving colonies are structurally important out of all proportion to their number.

Commonly Confused With

• Staghorn coral — Staghorn has thin cylindrical branches; elkhorn has thick flattened ones.
• Fire coral — Fire coral is mustard-yellow with white tips and stings, and often grows in the same shallow zone.

Diving Etiquette And Safety

Critically Endangered. A single fin kick can break decades of growth. Never stand on, hold or brush against shallow coral — this is the reason surge-zone snorkelling in Cozumel has rules.

Part of the Cozumel marine life guide · see Cozumel dive sites · plan your Cozumel dive trip

Photo: Nick Hobgood, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.