Alor - Bama Wall

Setting

A spectacular, exceptionally fish-rich reef top and upper wall with dense, near-continuous coral cover across most of the frames reviewed (e.g., Image 38, Image 53).

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Visibility is excellent throughout with strong, even ambient light.

General benthic features

Coral growth forms are diverse: large plating/table Acropora colonies (one pair of overlapping brown plates hosting dozens of anthias), extensive fields of staghorn/digitate Acropora thickets in pale cream and pink-brown color morphs, massive Porites and faviid/brain coral boulders (several with visible oscula-like holes, one meandroid brain coral with sharp ridges), a large fluted giant clam (Tridacna) with a gray-brown mantle wedged in the reef structure, and scattered purple, pink, and orange encrusting sponges alongside dark bushy black coral (e.g., Image 31, Image 44, Image 50).

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Coral cover

Coral cover: 11% — a blind Claude computer-vision point count of 233 of Anderson's unedited photographs (20 points per photo; water, fish, and obstructions excluded). Other computer-vision methods are listed in the method table.

Stressors

No bleaching or disease is visible on any of the massive or plating corals reviewed; all colonies show normal pigmentation (browns, tans, pinks). No man-made objects beyond diver gear appear in this sample. No crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) or other corallivores evident.

Fish and other fauna

Massive clouds of anthias (orange and purple) and smaller planktivores stream over the reef crest in nearly every wide shot, thick enough in places to obscure the substrate behind them (e.g., Image 39, Image 40).

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A banded sea krait (black-and-pale-blue bands) is visible undulating across a sandy patch strewn with coral rubble and isolated small coral clumps in one frame — a notable and confidently identified sighting. A small blue Linckia sea star sits on the reef in one frame.

Comparisons with other data

Also on record for this site: A steep to near-vertical reef face with substantial relief and open-water exposure (e.g., Image 5, Image 9, Image 29).

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Plating and foliose colonies compatible with Montipora, Pachyseris, and Turbinaria were prominent, alongside massive Porites, scattered branching or tabular Acropora, fungiids, and massive brain coral forms; live cover varied around bare framework and sediment pockets on the less vertical ledges (e.g., Image 18, Image 23, Image 41).

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Barrel and tube sponges, gorgonians, whip corals, and crinoids diversified the wall, with anthias, chromis, butterflyfishes, and surgeonfishes along the face (e.g., Image 4, Image 17, Image 43, Image 46).

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Other notes

Two frames show divers with camera rigs working the reef top; one wide shot looking up at the surface shows the reef silhouetted against sunlit water with a large school of dark surgeonfish/unicornfish overhead (e.g., Image 14, Image 34).

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