Deep-sea Corals
Corals are close relatives of sea anemones, and have the same tubular body form, called a polyp, with a crown of tentacles surrounding a central mouth. But unlike anemones, many corals form colonies, with each coral connected to many others. Some of these colonial corals have skeletons of limestone that build up from brilliantly colored coral reefs that are home to thousands of species of marine animals.
Like shallow-water corals, deep-sea corals may exist as individual coral polyps, as diversely-shaped colonies containing many polyps of the same species, and as reefs with many colonies made up of one or more species. Unlike shallow-water corals, however, deep-sea corals don’t need sunlight. They obtain the energy and nutrients they need to survive by trapping tiny organisms in passing currents. Because they don’t depend on warm water or sunlight, deep-sea corals are able to live in many different places around the world. They are far more widely distributed than scientists previously imagined—living even in waters as cold as -1ºC (30.2ºF). As of now, we don't exactly know how many species of corals have been discovered yet but new species are continually being discovered. To date, however, more than 3,300 species of deep-sea corals have been identified. And the numbers keep climbing.
Coral reefs protect coastlines from storms and erosion and also provide jobs for local communities. They are also provide medicinal aid. A lot of people depend on reefs for food, income, and protection. Fishing, diving, and snorkeling on and near reefs add hundreds of millions of dollars to local businesses. These ecosystems are culturally important to indigenous people around the world.
Article: Coral Reef Ecosystem
Coral Reefs are also considered to be underwater Rainforest. After going through some books on coral reef and how they spread around seamounts, I discovered the close relation that corals have with the deep sea currents and how they use these currents to spread their seeds across the oceans. These seeds further stick to the seamounts and start growing. It was interesting to see how everything connects together. Another thing I discovered about corals was how they allow vibrant fishes to camouflage. Predators like sharks camouflage in the monotonous tones of the open ocean whereas, colorful corals allow the colorful and vibrant fishes to hide in a densely packed environment.
Conservation of Seamounts
Seamounts are underwater mountains of volcanic origin that rise from the seafloor. Regarded as hotspots of biological diversity in the ocean, seamounts serve as spawning sites for many species. Marine mammals such as whales and dolphins and large predators such as sharks rely on them to feed and rest during migrations. Thanks to their isolation, seamounts can exhibit high levels of biological endemism, which means that many species that occur in or around seamounts cannot be found anywhere else on the planet.
Seamount biodiversity and ecosystems face a number of threats including deep sea bottom fishing and deep sea mining. Many seamount species grow and reproduce slowly and are therefore highly vulnerable to unsustainable fishing and mineral exploration, through potential overexploitation and habitat destruction. Seamount ecosystems have low ability to recover from such damage and no evidence of regrowth has been documented in these ecosystems. Other threats include pollution, invasive alien species, ocean warming, deoxygenation and ocean acidification.
Article: Seamount Conservation
After looking into different ways that people are trying to make people aware of this, I found out some organizations that work on seamounts and life around seamounts. Their main goal is to spread awareness about this and protect these areas from exploitation. Mission Blue, a conservation organization founded by famed oceanographer Sylvia Earle, designated a large amount of seamounts as Hope Spots. Hope Spots are areas critical to the health of the ocean for any number of reasons: an abundance or diversity of species, a unique habitat or ecosystem, or significant cultural or economic value to a community, to name a few.
“Until right about now, we did not need proactive actions to take care of the ocean, because we could not get to most of the ocean,” Earle said at a ceremony in San Francisco, California, hosted by the Marine Conservation Institute and Mission Blue. “The ocean was protected by its inaccessibility. That’s just no longer true. Our impact is universal.”
Earle founded Mission Blue in 2009 and has been designating regions, such as the Bay of Fundy and Hawai‘i’s Olowalu Reef (which is also within the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary) as Hope Spots to draw attention to areas critical to the health of the ocean. The organization’s ultimate goal, Earle said, is to leverage a Hope Spot designation into a formal protection sanctioned by local, national, or international governments.
Article: Sylvia Earle’s Newest “Hope Spots"