The animals, known as coral polyps, make a collective home for themselves by secreting a skeleton of some kind on which the colony lives. The secretions are characteristic of the species and can become very large.
Many people believe that corals are found only in the waters of tropical oceans and seas.
This common misapprehension is a result of the fact that reef-forming corals are found only in the tropics. Coral reefs are easily seen by anyone who visits a tropical paradise because they are just below the surface of the water near the shore. Many fishermen haul up corals accidentally in their fishing gear, but some fishermen are unaware of what they are. Unfortunately, scientists and fisheries managers have paid very little attention to deepwater coral species, and as a result they are being seriously damaged by fishing activities. The most damaging techniques involve dragging heavy nets and their associated gear over the bottom of the ocean to capture groundfish like cod, haddock, pollock, redfish and grenadier.