Arrecife Topatillo

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Location on Continental Shelf
Inner-Shelf Bank
Width
0.10km
Length
0.40km
Maximum Depth
45.00m

From: INE, 1992; NOAA, 2004; Tunnell, 2007
Topatillo is one of the 12 emergent platform type reefs that form the Southern Veracruz Reef System, located off the fishing village of Anton Lizardo in the western Gulf of Mexico. In 1992, the Mexican government declared the system a Natural Protected Area with a National Marine Park status. It is positioned approximately 17 km from the mainland.

Community Structure

Topatillo used to have a coral rubble cay (Acropora cervicornis rubble only), but it does not exist today. It is believed that stands of Acropora palmata on the windward side and Acropora cerviconis on the leeward side formerly protected Isla Topatillo. After the death of these two species in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the small island began to erode because of lack of protection, by Acropora, from wave action. By 2002, Isla Topatillo had disappeared completely.

References

  • Instituto Nacional de Ecologia (INE). 1992. DECRETO por el que se declara área natural protegida con el carácter de Parque Marino Nacional, la zona conocida como Sistema Arrecifal Veracruzano. Web accessed on Feb. 2, 2004.

  • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 2004. NOAA Fisheries. National Marine Fisheries Service, International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI).

  • Tunnell, J.W., Jr. 2007. Reef Distribution (chapter 2). In Tunnell, J.W. Jr., Chavez, E.O. and Withers, K. (eds) Coral Reefs of the Southern Gulf of Mexico. Texas A&M University Press, College Station, TX, 216 p.

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