Search
The Mesoamerican Reef extends over 600 miles (1000 km) through the waters of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras and includes the Western Hemisphere’s longest barrier reef.
Photo

Mesoamerican Reef Regional Map

View Image
Tropical fish and a ray swim in an aquarium tank.
Video

Tropical Reef Camera

Watch the Video
Large numbers of grey reef sharks were observed at Jarvis Island, an uninhabited Pacific island, during the 2010 Pacific RAMP expedition of the NOAA Ship Hi'ialakai.
Photo

Reef Sharks Passing Through

View Image
A small giant clam -- yes, that's it's real name -- in Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
Photo

Great Barrier Reef, Australia

View Image
Large numbers of grey reef sharks were observed at Jarvis Island, an uninhabited Pacific island, during the 2010 Pacific RAMP expedition of the NOAA Ship Hi'ialakai.
Article

Reef Sharks Repelled by People

Read the Full Article
A graph compares the crustacean biodiversity of coral reefs around the world.
Photo

Coral Reef Biodiversity: A Comparison

View Image
3-D map of Chapman’s Reef. Produced in 2005 with multibeam sonar from an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV).
Photo

Deep-Sea Coral Reef Map

View Image
A diver cares for the reef by cleaning up discarded fishing gear and garbage.
Photo

Diver Cleaning Up Reef

View Image
A many-armed, orange starfish.
Photo

A Filter-Feeding Starfish

View Image
A coral head in the Mesoamerican Reef has both bleached and living coral. The white sections are bleached and the brown parts still contain zooxanthellae, the symbiotic algae that provide food to their coral hosts.
Photo

Bleached Coral On Mesoamerican Reef

View Image
Raccoon butterfly fish and angelfish on a reef in the Red Sea, near Sharm el Sheik, Egypt.
Photo

Coral Reef Scene

View Image
In this photo of a shallow coral reef in the Pacific there are three species of forams. Their colors come from the symbiotic algae that live inside the foram shells.
Photo

Shallow Coral Reef Foraminifers

View Image