Midnight Parrotfish

Photo: Curtis Hart · CC BY-NC

Midnight parrotfish — the largest parrotfish species in the Caribbean at up to 75 centimetres — excavate coral substrate with audible crunching bites, producing the white sand that makes Caribbean beaches famous. Their high density at Labadie signals a biologically intact reef: parrotfish populations are among the first to collapse under fishing pressure, making their abundance here a meaningful conservation indicator.