Rice Coral Spawn

On the night of June 14th (or early in the morning on the 15th), something magical happened! We have noticed this phenomenon the past few summers and this summer did not disappoint. Rice coral (montipora capitata) in Kāneʻohe Bay is known to spawn during the warm water summer months right around the new moon and this year it was during the Hawaiian lunar month of Kaʻaona and gregorian month of June. The pictures below show what our shoreline looked like on the morning of June 15th. The coral spawn in the middle of the night and the “leftovers” wash up on our shore for us to see the next morning. We arenʻt coral biologists and canʻt answer all the who/why/how questions but we do look forward to making this yearly observation and adding it to our “kilo” bank.