This week the professors asked us to chose our favorite species and share some important information about that species. We focused quite a bit on coral this week and learned about it's struggle in the ocean due to rising acidification and human inflicted damage (such as boat anchors dragging through coral, and divers/snorkelers accidentally, hopefully not purposefully, coming into contact with coral). We saw several types of both hard and soft corals during our snorkeling excursions and one soft coral in particular that caught my eye was the soft purple sea fan coral, classified in the genus Gorgonia. The most abundant species we saw was Gorgonia ventalina, but we did see a few Gorgonia flabellum, as well. As you might be able to tell from the name, Gorgonia looks like a big beautiful purple, webbed fan. These corals can also be orange, yellow, or brown but these colors are much less common. This coral is made up of a bunch of tiny, individual polyps.Gorgonia orients itself in such a way that it when the current comes by, it sweeps tasty little zooplankton right into the coral's mouth (yes, they have tiny little mouths!). Dead parts of this coral provide a substrate for other organisms to grow, including some sponges and algae. These corals were seen more consistently than some of the other corals as we snorkeled each site.
Gorgonia that has grown on the side of a rock
One of my favorite pictures that I took of this species of coral
Oh hey! Just checking out some Gorgonia
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