Both corals and sponges were observed in high densities throughout during the Deep Connections 2019 expedition dive on Retriever Seamount, with a particularly large abundance and diversity of sponges. Observed sponges included Euplectellid glass sponges, Rossellid vase sponges, fragile Euretid wide-mouth vase sponges, Polymastia sp., Geodia sp., encrusting demosponges, and a number of unknown sponges. The deep-sea coral community consisted of bottlebrush golden corals, pink corals, large fans of bubblegum corals, soft corals, and stoloniferous corals.
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Video courtesy of NOAA Ocean Exploration, Deep Connections 2019.
Canyons and Seamounts: Deep, Steep, and Worth Exploring