If anyone wants some info on deep-water corals, including some pix of
species found in my neck of the woods, here is a good little site:
http://biotype.biology.dal.ca/biotype/1998/dec98/coral.html. See also
the Lycos "Environmental News" arcticle at
http://www.ens.lycos.com/ens/dec98/1998L-12-23-03.html, and an eccentric
site at: http://cohps.atlantisforce.org. These deep-water coral forests
and communities are found all around the world, but are being rapidly
wiped out (along with the fisheries they help support!!) by heavy
trawling equipment that act as "marine buldozers", clear-cutting every
complex community they run over. I urge anyone interested in protecting
the biodiversity of the world-ocean to get involved in local groups
opposed to the heedless way we are degrading and diminishing a
substantial portion of the planet's resources.
Greetings from the Great Spring-is-sprung North,
Ross.