Volume 7 Number 9 Sea Rod Coral Colony Perched Below Blue-Water
Canopy This picture shows a healthy colony of Sea Rod Corals
perched atop a coralhead with the blue water of the surface of
the Atlantic Ocean in the background. Sea Rod Corals are common
throughout the Caribbean. Sea Rod Corals colonies are made of a
cluster of branches made of a soft material surrounding a core
of harder material rich in calcium. The individual animals in
the colony, called coral polyps, live in the soft material from
which they extend their tentacles into the water. These short
tentacles are only about 1/8 of an inch long, but are enough to
make the branches of the colony look fuzzy. There are thousands
of coral polyps in this picture. Each branch of this colony was
about 10 inches long, and each branch was split into many
smaller branches. Each little branch was covered by hundreds of
coral polyps. How many big and little branches can you count in
this picture? ReefNews President Jonathan Dowell took this
picture using a Cano