WEBVTT

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And there’s a coral on the right to take a look at, please.

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Oh yeah.

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Coming into view.

4
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Looks like we might be able to see some associates on this guy, too.

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There are a lot of brittle stars on that one.

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This is definitely a condominium. This is a high rise right here.

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High-rise hotel, high-rise apartment, here. With lots of brittle stars, hanging out on this black coral.

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And you see a squat lobster in the lower field of view, kind of bouncing around a little bit.

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Having all of these associates, does it affect the health at all?

10
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Well, the associates play a role in keeping the coral clean and happy.

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Given that there are so many associates, maybe this coral is able to sort of stay devoid of particles and getting clogged up.

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Scratching a little itch there.

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So they are called squat lobsters because that telson or tail kind of is tucked under, under the body.

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And so right now you can see it’s kind of extended its telson and looks like it is scratching an itch, as Jenny says. That’s cute.

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This is a type of octocoral. You can see the polyps have eight tentacles.

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And we’re getting a really amazing view of the brittle star associates, these ophiuroids.

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You see the ophriuriod brittle star arms moving around in the water and a close-up view of the octocoral that we’re going to collect.

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Do you want the whole thing?

19
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Sure.

20
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That’s magnificent.

21
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It’s got these sort of squiggly branches, but I’m not a black coral specialist.

22
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So what’s interesting about this is that Leiopathes,

23
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we’ve collected some in the Gulf of Mexico and then Nancy Prouty from USGS has dated the age of these corals to be upwards of 2,000 years old, using C-14 analysis, or radiocarbon isotope dating.

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And so the corals, based on her analysis, are really slow growing, on the order of two to eight microns per year.

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So not millimeters, not centimeters, but microns per year.

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And I guess it’s settled and encrusted on this really dark rock.

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Or is that the extension of the base, I wonder?

28
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So we’re zoomed in here. This Anthomastus is an octocoral.

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You can see that each polyp has eight tentacles.

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And you see some crinoids on the right-hand side of the screen, with arms extended.

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And there’s also sponges all over this rock. It looks like a glass sponge, hexactinellid.

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This is a type of primnoid octocoral. The primnoid polyps have these scales on them, sort of appear rough.

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When we look at it really closely, you can see that it kind of looks, has a rough texture.

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And then octocorals, as we’ve been saying throughout expedition, each polyp has eight tentacles.

35
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So that’s another distinguishing feature.

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And then, with this particular type of coral, the polyps aren’t at right angles with the branch, they’re actually pointed downwards towards the seafloor.

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So that’s another distinguishing characteristic.

38
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Thank you.

39
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Looks like Asteroschema.

40
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I believe it’s a Paramuricea, although it looks really strange.

41
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With that long stalk.

42
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It’s a snake star.

43
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So let’s go in on the sponge and the star on the bottom first.

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Take a look at that.

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Looks like there’s zoanthids on the right-hand side of the screen.

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And then the ophiuroids look like zebra striped, zebra like.

47
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Those look cool.

48
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Nice.

49
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More zoanthids.

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Lovely, lovely zoanthids.

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The zoanthids have created this coating on the coral.

52
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I think that’s why the zoanthids don’t get the love.

53
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They smother everything?

54
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Yeah.

55
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Can we get a shot of the crab on the right of this coral?

56
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That rock is actually really nice.

57
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Fractures in that rock.

58
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Yeah.

59
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This one might be Lophelia again.

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We’re at 494 meters.

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Take a closer look, see if there are any live polyps.

62
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So far I see dead skeleton. We might have to tilt up a little bit.

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There are live polyps. There you go, you can see some live polyps on the right-hand side.

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Now you can see the black skeleton there. That gives the black corals their name.

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And then those are the shape of the polyps that I was talking about when we were looking at the sponge,

66
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they just have the two longer tentacles coming off the top.

67
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Good morning for our listeners just tuning in, we’re looking at a nice example of a black coral.

68
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There was a crab on it. Hopefully you caught it.

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This is a primnoid octocoral.

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We collected some earlier on, on the other side of the seamount.

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Is that another crinoid below? It’s not another coral below?

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It’s a, the red is a brisingid sea star.

73
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But there’s a bit to look at on the coral above.

74
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And that was an anemone attached to the top of it?

75
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Yeah. It’s a type of anemone – flytrap anemone.

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The temperate and salinity look like it’s gone up a little bit.

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It looks like, yeah, maybe a different water mass moving down over this wall.

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Mixing around.