St. Maarten - Proselyte Reef

Setting

Proselyte Reef takes its name from HMS Proselyte, a Royal Navy frigate wrecked here in 1801, and pieces of encrusted chain and metal debris still turn up among the coral heads as a reminder of that history (e.g., Image 48).

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The site itself is a shallow, low-relief spur of coral rock and rubble, its surface knit together by big brain corals — grooved and smooth-faced colonies alike — and sturdy boulder star corals, with mustard hill coral filling in the gaps (e.g., Image 10, Image 18, Image 22, Image 31, Image 39, Image 47).

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It's an easy, scenic introduction to St Maarten's reef life — equal parts natural history and maritime history.

General benthic features

A soft-coral canopy of sea plumes, sea rods, and sea fans sways over much of the reef, punctuated by barrel sponges and patches of vivid orange and red encrusting sponge (e.g., Image 3, Image 8, Image 16, Image 20, Image 44).

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Coral cover

Coral cover: 7.9% — a blind Claude computer-vision point count of 114 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 corallivores evident.

Fish and other fauna

Divers can expect schooling chub and jacks overhead, sergeant majors and wrasses working the reef face, the occasional Caribbean reef shark passing in the blue, and spiny lobsters tucked into the many ledges and crevices (e.g., Image 12, Image 27, Image 37).

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Comparisons with other data

No independent survey was made at this exact site; the nearest ones are listed in the table below.