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Thursday, October 28, 2010

Photo: U.S. Coral Eden Found; Others Saved From Destructive Fishing


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A cold-water coral of the family Paragorgiidae—often referred to as bubblegum corals—lives in the deep waters of the Gulf of Alaska.

A new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ruling bans bottom trawling (dragging weighted fishing nets along the seafloor) in a 370,000-square-mile (958,000-square-kilometer) area off Alaska's Aleutian Islands, a deep-sea coral hot spot. In a separate but related announcement, a new large and diverse community of deep-sea corals has been discovered off the coast of Washington State.

Photograph courtesy NOAA