Observations of Acropora spawning in the Mozambique Channel

Abstract

There is little published information about the reproductive biology of corals in the western Indian Ocean region. In particular, information about coral spawning patterns is largely absent from scientific literature. 

 We document scleractinian coral spawning events - 8 species of Acropora - from the Mozambique Channel, observed on three different nights after new and full moons, in the vicinity of Andavadoaka on the southwest coast of Madagascar in September 2013.  

 These observations constitute the first documented in situ observations of coral spawning for Madagascar and the Mozambique Channel, close to the westernmost boundary of the global distribution of these Acropora species.