Many of the shallow lagoon colonies of branching Millepora, or fire coral, also bleached during the 2009 event. The coral is normally brownish yellow. Like Goniopora, Millepora is another kind of "weedy" species that seems to grow over and possibly choke out other species. If I had to choose two species to be chopped back somewhat, these two would probably have been the ones.
The next three shots show a single Millepora colony over time. The first was taken on 8 March 2009.
By 27 September 2009 the colony had bleached out. (This one was shot from the other side of the colony.)
By 6 June 2010, most of the colony had died, but a few branches on either side had survived and regained their zooxanthellae.
The columnar form of Millepora, usually considered the same species as the branching one above, seemed to fare better during the bleaching event.
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