The corals wanna be on the hard parts.
You note the sediments that are dusted around the exposed rock,
that's not where the corals are growing.
They grow on the hard substrate,
which is why these seamounts and these ridges increase the
diversity of the deep sea in this area,
because otherwise, you know, we have an abyssal plain.
Right, if you're out on the abyssal, it would be completely covered with sediment.
Actually, the higher the outcrop or the pile of rubble, the more animals we've seen on it.
The corals themselves are, effectively, acting like trees in a forest and
you can see here lots of bird equivalents sitting in the branches.