The inner reef (or continental shelf) is the area with minimal depth that starts from the beach and is thus protected from the waves. It is the same part that we call a lagoon, but it doesn’t always have a strip of land to separate it from the open sea. It is covered with sand and coral debris, phanerogamous or macroalgae meadows, soft corals and seabeds with dense cover of hard corals. Corals in this area have been adapted to withstand large changes in temperature, light, salinity and dissolved oxygen. Due to these difficult conditions, there is very limited coral growth in these areas. The largest coral growth occurs beyond this zone, but there are some species that live and adapt here, that have not been seen elsewhere.