Range: Cosmopolitan Habitat: Continental shelves, slopes, canyons, and underwater mountains Size: Up to 33 feet (10m) tall; Up to 25 miles (40km) wide as reefs Diet: Plankton and detritus Threats: Humans and habitat destruction Life span: Estimated to thousands of years

Transcript:

Today on Animal Fact Files we’re discussing deep corals. Most people think of tropical waters and brightly colored fishes when they hear the world “coral” however there are thousands of coral species living much deeper than these shallow water inhabitants. The range of shallow water corals is inhibited due to their relationship with algae called zooxanthellae. Shallow water corals have formed this symbiotic relationship with the algae in order to gain nutrients, deep water corals, however, don’t have this relationship and instead catch all their own food.

Like shallow water coral, the basic form of the deep water coral is a polyp. A polyp looks kind of like a super tiny anemone - or George. They catch planktonic organisms and debris on their outstretched tentacles which is then transported to the mouth and consumed. In shallow water coral, hundreds to thousands of polyps gather together to form a colony organism, and all these colony organisms gathered in a similar place are referred to as a coral reef! Deep sea corals may also form reefs and colony organisms, but they’re also known to live completely solitary!

Deep water corals are also known as cold water corals and some species have been found living in water as cold as -1 degree - Celsius! These organisms range from 150 to more than 10,000 feet below the ocean’s surface! In fact, one species was observed from depths deeper than the height of Mount Kilimanjaro! Deep sea coral can be found on continental shelves, slopes, canyons, and underwater mountains. In turn, cold water corals provide habitat for all kinds of other sea life living below the line through which light can penetrate the ocean’s surface. These inhabitants include multiple species of crustaceans and fish! Deep water corals are found all throughout the world, however, their full extent is largely unknown as the seafloor is one of the least explored places on earth! Who knows what else might be living in deep coral reefs!

In size, cold water corals range from as small as a grain of rice to colonies that reach more than 33 feet (10m) high and reefs that span 25 miles (40km)! They come in all kinds of colors which seems a bit odd since many of them live where light doesn’t even penetrate so they can be seen. They also form in many shapes from fanned, to branched, to columned, to feathered!

Threats to deep water corals are mostly anthropogenic, or human, in nature and include deep water trawling, which has been banned in some areas deep reefs are known to live, as well as ocean acidification. Damage done to these animals takes centuries to undo as they are quite slow growing, only maxing out at an inch (2.54cm) of growth per year. If they remain undisturbed however, some are estimated to live thousands of years!

For more facts on deep corals, check out the links in the description. Thank you to alfie for today’s request! Give a thumbs up if you learned something new today, and thank you for watching Animal Fact Files!