9-foot Stake is a
coral reef
A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups.
Co ...
located within the
Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary is a U.S. National Marine Sanctuary in the Florida Keys. It includes the Florida Reef, the only barrier coral reef in North America and the third-largest coral barrier reef in the world. It also has ex ...
. It lies to the south of
Key West
Key West ( es, Cayo Hueso) is an island in the Straits of Florida, within the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it cons ...
, and is west of
Marker 32 reef. Unlike many reefs in the Sanctuary, it is not within a Sanctuary Preservation Area (SPA).
The reef gets its name from a fallen telephone pole within the reef.
Gallery
Image:Grunts_9-ft_2010.jpg, A school of grunts and some soft coral
Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and sec ...
s at 9-foot Stake reef.
References
NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Maps, Florida Keys EastNOAA Navigational Chart 11441
{{Corals
Coral reefs of the Florida Keys