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Exploring the beautiful nature of California


California Nature:  Coral


Coral reefs are one of the most biologically diverse habitats in the world, host to an extraordinary variety of marine plants and animals. They are also one of the world's most fragile and endangered ecosystems. The growth of mass tourism, combined with the boom in popularity of scuba diving, has brought these spectacular ecosystems to public attention across the planet.

Coral reefs provide essential fish habitat, support endangered and threatened species, and harbor protected marine mammals and turtles. They are a significant source of food, provide income and employment through tourism and marine recreation, and offer countless other benefits to humans, including supplying compounds for pharmaceuticals. Yet coral reefs around the world are rapidly being degraded by a number of human activities, such as overfishing, coastal development, and the introduction of sewage, fertilizer, and sediment.
hydrocorals off the coast of California have finger like growth Few people are aware that the continental shelf, slope, and canyons of California’s ocean are home to a diversity of deep sea corals. Like redwoods, California’s deep sea corals can live to be hundreds or even thousands of years old.

Large corals like Hydrocorals, gorgonian corals, and black corals grow in high densities around the Channel Islands, Monterey Bay, the Gulf of the Farallones off San Francisco, and the continental slope off Northern California.

Hydrocorals and gorgonian sea fans are commonly seen by divers in Southern California. These deep sea corals, along with sponges, kelp forests, anemones, tunicates, and crinoids, form the living components of biogenic habitats, which provide shelter for a variety of sea life, including rockfish, crabs, lingcod, garibaldi, and many others. Some of California’s corals may be older than the towering redwood counterparts on land.

Hydrocorals are more closely related to jellyfish, than they are to other corals. The most commonly recognized species of Hydrocorals are Fire Corals and Lace Corals.

Fire Corals are often mistaken for hard corals because they are very similar in appearance, but they are actually related to jellyfish. They were given their name because they have hairlike structures called dactylozooids which contain nematocysts that produce toxins which can cause painful burns or stings. They use these nematocysts to sting and paralyze prey, as well as for defense against predators such as starfish. Fire corals are commonly found in areas of the reef which have high light intensity and strong currents.

Lace corals also have hard skeletons, but are much more delicately branched than Fire Corals. Their sting is less severe than that of the Fire Corals. They are commonly found in shaded areas of a reef, but generally prefer strong currents, like their cousins.
sea fans are just some of the beautiful coral found off the coast of California Sea fans are among the most beautiful sights seen by divers. Gorgonian sea fans are Cnidarians that build colonies in branching formations that usually are fan-shaped, thus the common name.

Gorgonians are octocorals: each polyp has eight pinnate tentacles which it uses to capture nutrients suspended in the water column. They are seen most often on reef crests, or jutting out from drop-offs or steep banks in locations where natural currents will sweep plankton and other organic nutrients across the polyps' tentacles.

Some sea fan species form colonies in a single plane, while others grow their branches in somewhat of a tangle. They come in quite an array of colors, most of which actually are the result of zooxanthellae that live in the structural tissue of the Gorgonian. Beyond giving them attractive coloration, zooxanthellae also produce nutrients through photosynthesis, which benefit the Gorgonians.
Scientists recently discovered a new species of deep-sea coral off the coast of Santa Barbara. They named the new species “Christmas tree coral” (Antipathes dendrochristos) since it grows over 6 feet tall and resembles pink, white, and red flocked Christmas trees.

This discovery shows the importance of protecting areas that have not yet been trawled. Scientists have only explored less than one percent of California’s seafloor. Who knows what else scientists will discover as they venture to new, unexplored underwater frontiers off our coast?

Trawlers up and down the coast are destroying California’s corals and sponges. Despite recent trawl closures to protect overfished rockfish, trawlers are free to move into new areas of the continental slope and shelf known to contain corals. Major trawl fisheries off California target flatfish, whiting, and rockfish. Deep boulder habitats like Cordell Bank provide a natural refuge for overfished species such as bocaccio, yelloweye rockfish, vermilion rockfish, and canary rockfish, which are frequently observed in these areas
Marine Algae      Seagrass      Coral
 
 
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