Corals

Corals are not protected in B.C. waters.

Although coral is often mistaken for a rock or a plant, it is actually composed of tiny fragile animals called coral polyps. Coral reefs are a combination of live growth on top of the coral skeletons of previous generations.

There are three main families of corals in B.C.’s deep waters, all from the Gorgonian order. The gorgonians have a branching, horny, calcareous skeleton and look like trees unlike many other hard corals that create mounds. Gorgonians are often found in clusters that resemble forests or small groves.

Only within the last 10 years have scientists discovered that corals exist in the dark depths of the ocean in greater abundance than their tropical counterparts. Deep sea corals catch detritus and plankton carried to them by currents. Currents also keep corals from being buried by sediment. For this reason, coral forests are usually found in troughs and fjords, the flanks of banks, along the continental margin, and on seamounts.

Deep water corals in Alaska provide habitat for rockfish, Atka mackerel, shortspine thornyhead, juvenile Pacific halibut, rock sole, juvenile red king crab, and several species of shrimp.

"Soft" corals are all part of one living structure and do not form reefs. Stony "hard" corals form reefs by cementing broken coral and sediment together on dead corals. Polyps grow together in the hundreds or thousands connected by tissue. These colonies sit on or surround a skeleton, made by a secretion that hardens into a bone-like structure.

In 2002 the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration visited the Warwick Seamount just outside B.C.’s 200-mile EEZ. The seamount was so biologically rich and unique that scientists on this dive named Warwick Seamount, "The Garden of Eden.”