Panamic porites coral in Los Cabos

How to recognize it

Colonies are lumpy mounds, lobes or short, thick branches with a smooth to wavy surface, usually greenish grey to brown. The polyps are small and packed close together. The species comes in several growth forms that were once described as separate species: mound-shaped (massive), encrusting, columnar and branching. The mound form is the most common in the Gulf; at Cabo Pulmo colonies are rounded, half-sphere lumps, while the columnar form grows only from 1 to 5 m, mostly in sheltered spots.

Biology

Porites panamensis lives along the Pacific coast of the Americas from about 31°N in the Gulf of California to Isla Gorgona, Colombia. It is the most abundant coral in the central and northern Gulf, where it usually covers just 1–7% of the bottom on rocky reefs. At Cabo Pulmo, a 2011 CONANP survey found it made up about 11% of the live coral, after the two cauliflower coral forms. It has also been recorded at Bahía Chileno, between Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo.

Unlike the cauliflower corals, it broods its young. Each colony is male or female; eggs are fertilized inside the polyps and released as small swimming larvae (planulae). In Bahía de La Paz, planulae were found in most months, with a peak in February 2002, when 75% of female colonies carried them. Colonies start to reproduce when they are only about 5 cm² in area, and the larvae settle a few meters from their parents, so neighboring colonies are often related.

Seeing them from the boat

This is a coral to look at while snorkeling or diving, not something to fish or collect. At Cabo Pulmo National Park it grows among the cauliflower corals on the reef bars; look for greenish-grey lumps and mounds between the branching colonies. It also grows on rocky shores, including at Bahía Chileno near Cabo San Lucas, and since the mound form lives from 1 m down, you can often see it from the surface. At Cabo Pulmo, scuba diving is allowed only with a park-accredited guide, and snorkelers must wear a life vest in the reef areas.

Don't touch, stand on or kick the colonies: a coral that grows less than a centimeter a year takes decades to replace what a careless fin can break. Inside Cabo Pulmo, keep at least 2.5 m from rock and coral formations; gloves and knives are banned and boats may anchor only on sand.

Rules & conservation

Look, don't touch: breaking or taking coral is illegal in Mexico.

Don't confuse it with

The giant pavona (Pavona gigantea) also forms mounds at Cabo Pulmo, but it builds big boulders with closely spaced, star-shaped polyp cups, and its tentacles are often out by day, giving it a furry look. Porites sverdrupi, a small Gulf of California coral protected in Mexico, forms clumps of finger-like branches, cream to reddish brown, on sheltered rubble. Cauliflower corals (Pocillopora) are branching bushes covered in bumps.

Questions

By Max VargasTop Anglers, Cabo San Lucas · international judge at big game fishing world championships · reviewed October 2026

Sources

• Corals of the World: Porites panamensis factsheet
• Corals of the World: Porites sverdrupi factsheet
• Paz-García et al. 2008, genetic structure of Porites panamensis in the Mexican Pacific (11th Int. Coral Reef Symposium)
• Paz-García & Reyes-Bonilla 2006, lesion regeneration in two morphotypes of Porites panamensis (Ciencias Marinas)
• Mora-Pérez 2005, reproductive biology of Porites panamensis in Bahía de La Paz (CICIMAR-IPN thesis)
• Carpizo-Ituarte et al. 2011, sexual reproduction of Pocillopora, Porites panamensis and Pavona gigantea in Banderas Bay (Ciencias Marinas)
• Norzagaray-López 2010, calcium carbonate production by Porites panamensis at Cabo Pulmo and Islas Marietas (CICESE thesis)
• CONANP, Monitoreo de corales en el Parque Nacional Cabo Pulmo (2013 report, 2011 fieldwork)
• Reyes-Bonilla, coral records from Bahía Chileno, 1997 (CONABIO dataset via GBIF)
• SeaLifeBase: Porites panamensis (IUCN and CITES status)
• IUCN 2024 press release: over 40% of coral species face extinction
• Excélsior 2024, coral die-off in BCS during the 2023 heat (Costa Salvaje, UABCS)
• CONANP, Compendio del Programa de Manejo del Parque Nacional Cabo Pulmo
• NOM-017-PESC-1994, 2013 amendment (DOF)
• NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010, 2019 update (DOF)
• Código Penal Federal, art. 420 Bis (damage to reefs)

Top illustration: Top Anglers. Photos: iNaturalist contributors, credited on each photo.