Mediterranean black coral

Photo: DavidR.808 · CC BY-NC

Antipathes dichotoma colonises the Cape Stavros wall below 30 m, growing as sparse branching trees whose black skeleton is visible only where the thin white polyp layer is retracted. Black corals are among the oldest living organisms in the Mediterranean, with skeletons dated to over 300 years old at comparable depths in the western basin — specimens at Cape Stavros may predate modern diving. The species is a protected CITES Appendix II species in the Mediterranean, and its presence at this cape marks one of the easternmost accessible black coral sites in Greek waters.