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Giant clams like this Tridacna gigas were once common on Indonesian reefs. But a market for the canned meat in Asia, and the use of giant clam shells in making terazzo in Surabaya, Java have decimated the population in many areas.

A gorgonian goby (Bryaninops sp.) on an antipatharian wire coral. This little animal is no more than 4 centimeters long. Many fishes rely on invetebrates for food, shelter, and protection, but few are as particular as the gorgonian gobies. Some species of Bryaninops live and lay their eggs on only a single species of gorgonian or antipatharian.

Also damaging is the continuing practice of fish bombing, in which small charges are thrown overboard to stun fish so they can be easily captured for market. (See 'The Biak Fish Bomb Industry," page 28). The bombs don't just kill the fish. They create lifeless craters in the reef, deserts where all the coral and the life it supported have been destroyed. In some places this practice has reduced all the nearshore reef to barren rubble. Fishing for aquarium specimens and groupers for the live seafood trade using sodium cyanide is just as damaging.