Although forming a hard stony skeleton like those of scleractinean reef building corals, Heliopora is an Octocoral, more closely related to soft corals and gorgonians. It was long thought that there was a single species, Heliopora coerulea. However, in 2018 a second species, H. hiberniana, was described from northwestern Australia. The distribution has since been extended to the Maldives and Indonesia. Features that distinguish H. hiberniana from the widespread H. coerulea are thin branches and a white (rather than blue) internal skeleton that would be visible from a broken branch. Although far beyond the current known range of H. hiberniana, Kwajalein has some colonies with thin branches. A broken branch to reveal a blue or white skeleton would determine if H. hiberniana does range as far as the Marshalls. Currently we are listing all our photos as Heliopora coerulea.
