This document was prepared including its illustration by Arthur Lyon Dahl, formerly Regional Ecological Adviser with the South Pacific Commision ( SPC), Noumea, New Caledonia. First printed in English in 1981 as a waterproof edition, the handbook was based on techniques developed at an Expert Meeting on Coral Reef Monitoring and was prepared and published by the South pacific Commision with the financial support of the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co- operation