During Dive 06 of the 2019 Southeastern U.S. Deep-sea Exploration, we encountered a number of gorgonians, including this yellow sea fan. Gorgonians are soft corals, which means they are not reef-building corals. They can be distinguished from hard corals by the number of tentacles per polyp. Hard corals have six, soft corals have eight.
Sea Fan
Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2019 Southeastern U.S. Deep-sea Exploration. Download larger version (jpg, 1.8 MB).
During Dive 06 of the 2019 Southeastern U.S. Deep-sea Exploration, we encountered a number of gorgonians, including this yellow sea fan. Gorgonians are soft corals, which means they are not reef-building corals. They can be distinguished from hard corals by the number of tentacles per polyp. Hard corals have six, soft corals have eight.
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