TWL: Explanation of Pacific Coast Corals
Subject: TWL: Explanation of Pacific Coast Corals
From: Michael Maurice (mikem@XXX.XXX)
Date: Thu Jan 02 2003 - 19:05:50 EST
The following explanation was stolen, as it were from the URL page at
the bottom. Page 9.
A good explanation of West Coast Corals.
<<<<
Dr. Roys Corner: Dr. Roys Corner: What ! Coral In California
With the semester drawing to a close I have been thinking of the coral
reef research that I shall be
doing this summer. Therefore, it is appropriate to talk about these
gorgeous animals. When diving the cold
waters of California one does not usually think of looking for corals,
however, these creatures do occur in
our local rocky habitats. They are not like the massive corals that are
responsible for the construction of
coral reefs. Most corals that are responsible for the construction of
reefs contain the symbiotic zooxanthel-lae,
a unicellular algae which is necessary for the manufacture of their
robust skeletons. Corals that are
found locally do not have these algae. Hence, their skeletons are small,
fragile and exist as cups scattered
about on rocks and the faces of walls and other hard surfaces. This,
however, does not distract from their
beauty. There are four species of cup corals that are fairly common in
local waters. These are the Cup
Coral, Astrangia lajollaensis; the Orange Cup Coral, Balanophyllia
elegans; the Brown Cup Coral, Paracy-athus
stearnsi; and the Colonial Cup Coral, Coenocyathus bowersi. The first
species can be identified by
its brownish-orange cups that are up to 0.5 inches in diameter. The
Orange Cup and the Brown Cup spe-cies
are easily distinguished from each other by their color; while the
Colonial Cup Coral is characterized
by the elongated, colonial cups with short tentacles. These magnificant
animals are a sure hit for you di-vers
interested in macrophotography.
>>>>
http://www.divensurf.com/scuba/DT_01_06_Newsletter.PDF
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