Deep Sea Coral

Estimated Population:N/A

Biology

• Deep-sea coral are found throughout the colder waters of the world, normally at depths ranging from 150-3,000ft

• There are two types of deep-sea coral: hard and stony. Each can grow to be as large as 9 ft

• Rather than gaining energy from sunlight like their tropical counterparts, these coral feed off the nutrients found in the deep waters where they live

• Deep sea coral are an integral part of the ecosystem as a habitat for fish and other organisms

• Because they can reach ages past 2,000 years old, deep-sea coral serve as oceanic and atmospheric indicators of the past

• Until the last two decades, the scientific and academic community had largely ignored deep-sea coral

Threats

• The most destructive and serious threat to deep sea coral is bottom trawling, which with one drag can wipe out thousands of years of life

• Because deep-sea coral grow very slowly, it is very difficult to rehabilitate a coral garden after a trawl or longline has practically destroyed it

• Because it serves as a home for fish and other marine life, the coral’s destruction disrupts the entire ecosystem and could lead to the demise of other species too

Deep Sea Corals (DSC) also known as Cold Water Corals are comparable to their tropical counterparts and serve many of the same ecosystem functions as tropical corals. DSC's make up 2/3rds of the known coral species. DSC's often are found in communities that have a high level of biodiversity similar to tropical coral reefs. DSC's serve as hiding feeding and breeding places for many commercially important fish populations, can create large reefs in the deep ocean, and are the subject of on going research into new pharmaceuticals to treat human diseases. The biggest difference between DSC's and tropical shallow water corals is that DSC's use NO energy from the sun, they capture microscopic animals directly from the surrounding water and have no symbiotic algae like shallow water corals. Also DSC's are both slow growing, with some species growing less than 1/2 inch per year, and very long lived. Individual DSC's can live hundreds of years with some species aged at over 1,500 years old. Some DSC reefs have been aged at over 8,000 years old making them contenders for the oldest living organisms on earth. Because they are long lived, slow growing, and live in areas not subject to many natural disturbances once they have been destroyed by human activities they may take hundreds of years to recover if at all.  The destruction of DSC's caused primarily by Bottom Trawling went unnoticed until recently.

In Alaska waters rockfish, halibut, Pacific cod, shrimp and crabs are known to associate with DSC's. DSC's have been designated as Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) for groundfish by the NPFMC and in 2005 366,961 square miles of ocean bottom known or suspected to have significant concentrations of DSC's has been put off limits to bottom trawling to preserve these important habitats.