Tourmaline Reef (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

: ''Arrecife de Tourmaline'') is a shelf-edge

reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic processes— deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock out ...

located in the

Mona Passage The Mona Passage ( es, Canal de la Mona) is a strait that separates the islands of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. The Mona Passage connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean Sea and is an important shipping route between the Atlantic and the Panama ...

off

Mayagüez Bay Mayagüez Bay ( es, Bahía de Mayagüez) is a bay located in western Puerto Rico. The bay has recently been opened to the city of Mayagüez with the building of the Parque del Litoral because of the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games. Th ...

in western

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

. The reef is one of the best-preserved reefs of its type in Puerto Rico as it is found far away enough from the coast and was selected as one of the first coral reef protection zones under the Puerto Rico Coastal Zone Management Program (''Programa de Manejo de la Zona Costanera de Puerto Rico''). Tourmaline Reef is located close to Punta Guanajibo, at 7.5 nautical miles from Mayagüez, at depths of up to 10 meters under the ocean surface bordering in waters of moderate to high visibility due to minimal terrigenous or sedimentary deposits.

Conservation

The reef system is protected as the Tourmaline Reef Nature Reserve (''Reserva Natural Arrecife de Tourmaline''), managed by the Puerto Rico Department of Natural Resources (''DRNA'') which provides management plans and conservation resources that limit the fishing activities in the area for the purpose of preserving its delicate ecosystem, previously threatened by the overfishing of red grouper (''

Epinephelus guttatus The red hind (''Epinephelus guttatus''), also known as the koon or lucky grouper in Caribbean vernacular, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a grouper from the subfamily Epinephelinae which is part of the family Serranidae, which also includ ...

''). The reserve extends between the maritime borders of the municipalities of Mayagüez and Cabo Rojo. The coral cover of the reef is currently at approximately 40% in 2009, a decrease from 60% in 2003. In addition to the coral ecosystem, the reserve also protects tracts of seagrass prairies, important for species such as

sea turtles Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerhead, ...

and the

West Indian manatee The West Indian manatee (''Trichechus manatus''), also known as the North American manatee, is a large, aquatic mammal native to warm coastal areas of the Caribbean, from the eastern US to northern Brazil. Living alone or in herds, it feeds on un ...

References

Coral reefs Protected areas of Puerto Rico {{MayagüezPR-geo-stub