A beautiful shot of the branches of a red tree coral (Primnoa pacifica), seen at 722 meters (2,369 feet) depth during Dive 07 of the Seascape Alaska 3 expedition. Despite being found only in the North Pacific, these are one of the most well studied coral species in the world – but we still don’t know everything about them. For example, one theory for the downward curling of the coral polyps seen in the image is to avoid predation, but scientists don’t know this for certain.
Red Tree Coral
Image courtesy of NOAA Ocean Exploration, Seascape Alaska. Download larger version (jpg, 870 KB).

A beautiful shot of the branches of a red tree coral (Primnoa pacifica), seen at 722 meters (2,369 feet) depth during Dive 07 of the Seascape Alaska 3 expedition. Despite being found only in the North Pacific, these are one of the most well studied coral species in the world – but we still don’t know everything about them. For example, one theory for the downward curling of the coral polyps seen in the image is to avoid predation, but scientists don’t know this for certain.