Deep-water sea fan

Photo: julian_walcott · CC BY-NC

The stepped walls of Dragon Bay below 20 metres support dense gardens of deep-water sea fans that orient perpendicular to the prevailing current, maximising their ability to capture suspended particles. Each fan colony is a colony of genetically identical polyps sharing a common latticed skeleton, and can live for decades to centuries. They serve as nursery habitat for numerous commercially important fish species, making their protection critical to reef fisheries resilience.