How about some”Sex on the Reef”?
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Every year, in September, divers and snorkelers flock to the Florida Keys to witness some sex on the reef, or the spawning of North America’s only living coral barrier reef. The reef breeds by an evolutionary method called broadcast spawning. Egg and sperm are ejected into the water and unite in the salty sea. There they form a planula, which is actually a larval form of coral. The planula swims or floats to the surface and then continues to ride the waves and grow for anywhere between two days to two months. Once it’s large enough the planula sinks to the bottom of the ocean and grows into a polyp where it continues growing and developing more polyps until it becomes a coral head. These bursts of spawning seem directly linked to astronomy as the late August full moon signals the frenetic breeding. Approximately three to five days after the full moon and two hours after sunset the branching corals begin mating. Star and boulder corals wait until about a week after the full moon and three hours after sunset. There is no guarantee that you’ll be able to catch sex on the reef but generally the local dive shops can narrow the window to about five days and many of them offer evening excursions for voyeuristic tourists.
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