There has been an 80-98% loss of individuals in parts of the Caribbean region since the 1980's. There have been some signs of recovery. A second report has validated declines on the order of 97% in the Florida Keys, Jamaica, Dry Tortugas, Belize and St Croix (Acropora BRT 2005) and Puerto Rico (Weil et al. 2003).

There are populations present off the coast of Broward County (Florida), Mona Island (Puerto Rico), places in the southern Caribbean, and Dairy Bull Reef in northern Jamaica (Idjadi et al. 2006).

Overall, decline of destroyed and critical reefs in the Caribbean region has been 38% (according to Wilkinson 2004) however there have been much higher population reductions for this species as it is particularly susceptible to disease and bleaching.

The age of first maturity of most reef building corals is typically three to eight years (Wallace 1999) and therefore we assume that average age of mature individuals is greater than eight years. Furthermore, based on average sizes and growth rates, we assume that average generation length is 10 years, unless otherwise stated. Total longevity is not known, but likely to be more than ten years. Therefore any population decline rates for the Red List assessment are measured over at least 30 years. Follow the link below for further details on population decline and generation length estimates.

Stable