• Trunk Bay Beach, considered one of the 10 best beaches in the world is home to the underwater trail.

    Virgin Islands

    National Park Virgin Islands

Brain Coral

Brain Coral in shallow seawater, with a small, embedded Christmas Tree Worm
STATION B: This Brain Coral (Diploria strigosa), with its maze of ridges, is quite different from the Elkhorn Coral at the last station.  Since it's daytime, the living coral animal polyps are tucked down into the valleys between the colony's ridges, but the polyps could still be killed if you stepped on them!  SOS! = Stand on Sand, not corals!
Caroline Rogers
 
Hey!  What's that colorful, fluffy thing in the coral colony?  Station C shows a magnified view; check it out.

Did You Know?

Turpentine trees, locally called Gumbo Limbo are found throughout the Island, but mostly in dryer forest.

This unusual-looking tree found in dry forest areas has a reddish, peeling bark. The leaves and sap smell like turpentine and have many medicinal properties, but it is the peeling bark that gives the tree its nickname – "Tourist Tree".