Home sweet home

Seamounts support a vast variety of cold water coral communities. These deep-sea corals themselves host more than 1,300 different species of animals. Some animals are often unique to their seamount chain and sometimes specific to only a single species of coral.  For example at the Yakutat Seamount, the brittle star Ophiuroid Asteroschema clavigera lives only on the coral octocoral Paramuriceabiscaya. Learn more about life on the Seamounts and the poster available for purchase from our online store.(Photo by Tim Shank, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, DASS 2005 Expedition; IFE, NOAA OE)