Marker 32 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 group ...

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 e ...

. It lies to the south of

Key West Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida, at the southern end of 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 con ...

, and is between

Western Sambo Western Sambo is a coral reef 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 and 9-Foot Stake reef. Unlike many reefs in the Sanctuary, it is not within a Sanctuary Preservation Area (SPA). The reef is close to navigational marker 32.

Gallery

File:Buoys at Marker 32.jpg,

NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, charting the seas, conducting deep-sea exploratio ...

map of the reef Image:Pillar1_Marker32_2010.jpg, A large colony of

pillar coral Pillar coral (''Dendrogyra cylindrus'') is a hard coral (order Scleractinia) found in the western Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. It is the only species in the monotypic genus ''Dendrogyra''. It is a digitate coral -that is, it resembles fi ...

(''Dendrogyra cylindrus'') at Marker 32 reef, June 2010 Image:Pillar2_Marker32_2010.jpg, A small colony of

at Marker 32 reef, June 2010 Image:Barracuda_Marker32_2010.jpg, Large

barracuda A barracuda is a large, predatory, ray-finned, saltwater fish of the genus ''Sphyraena'', the only genus in the family Sphyraenidae, which was named by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1815. It is found in tropical and subtropical oceans worldw ...

at Marker 32 reef, June 2010 Image:Nassau_grouper_Marker32_2010.jpg,

Endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

Nassau grouper The Nassau grouper (''Epinephelus striatus'') is one of the large number of perciform fishes in the family Serranidae commonly referred to as groupers. It is the most important of the groupers for commercial fishery in the West Indies, but h ...

(''Epinephelus striatus'') at Marker 32 reef, June 2010

References

NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Maps, Florida Keys East

NOAA Navigational Chart 11441
{{Corals Coral reefs of the Florida Keys