Whitespotted Pufferfish

Photo: Luis P. B. · CC BY-NC

Pufferfish are common on the Poilão reef, browsing on coral polyps, sponges, and invertebrates across the reef flat and slope. Their powerful beak-like jaws can crush hard coral skeletons and the spines of sea urchins, making them important regulators of urchin populations. When approached by divers they inflate slowly into a spiny sphere as a deterrent — though on undisturbed reefs like Poilão they tend to be notably less flighty than their counterparts on heavily dived reefs.