Endangered status: vulnerable

Region: Caribbean, southern Gulf of Mexico, Florida, Bahamas

Threats: ocean floor damage, ocean acidification, rising ocean, rising ocean temperature

References:

• IUCN Red List (2018) Species: Pillar Coral. From iucnredlist.org

• NOAA Fisheries (2018) Species directory: Pillar Coral. From fisheries.noaa.gov

The Pillar coral is listed as threatened by the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and vulnerable by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List. This hard coral has a habitat range of the Caribbean, the southern Gulf of Mexico, Florida, and the Bahamas. Along with facing threats such as: bleaching, disease, ocean acidification, habitat degradation, and climate change, the pillar coral also has low juvenile survivorship. This means that the population struggles to recover from damage to the population, since there isn't an ability to compensate in reproduction or recreate those lost coral.