Look at the size of that. I am in awe right now.
These organisms have been growing down here in the deep sea for longer than our country has probably been a country.
And so it's just such a significant sight to see this kind of life just thriving. It is astounding.
Oh my goodness gracious.
It's incredible how many shrimp are hanging on this. Yeah. I've never seen that before.
Wow.
This is obviously probably multiple colonies, but meters across.
Oh my goodness, it's a wall of coral. Look at that.
Like, the fish can't even get through. You're right. I mean, it is, it's stuck, it can't make it through the coral.
This is some of why these canyons have become protected. It provides this habitat for these really large, old colonies.
Frank R. Lautenburg would be proud to have his name associated with such an amazing coral habitat.
This is so beautiful.
It's really cool because some of the data that was collected on earlier Okeanos expeditions helped contribute to the establishment of this deep-sea coral protection area,
and this is her first mission back since it became protected in 2017.