The coral reefs around Kenting National Park could delay spawning for another month this year, an official from the Taiwanese Coral Reef Society said.
Tsai Yung-chun (蔡永春) said he dived in the area on Sunday night to observe the spawning of the coral and found that only a few had spawned.
The spawning season of the park’s coral has been delayed for the third consecutive year because of weather changes, Tsai said.
Photo: Tsai Tsung-hui, Taipei Times
Tsai’s records for the past two decades showed the coral reefs in the park generally spawn between March 20 and March 24 on the lunar calendar (April 22 to April 26 this year).
This year, the coral began to spawn eggs on April 23 and Tsai had expected to see large amount of eggs laid on Sunday night, but in the end only three kinds of coral had spawned a small amount of eggs.
“Including the coral that had small amount of spawning Sunday night, only five kinds of coral have spawned so far,” he said.
There are more than 400 kinds of coral in the park’s waters and Tsai had previously recorded a large amount of egg laying, with more than 30 varieties of corals spawning simultaneously.
Tsai said that if the corals did not spawn around March 20 on the lunar calendar, they would do so one month later.
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