The diversity of life in the interstices of the coral mounds is dizzying, and just beginning to be appreciated. Several years ago, Andreas Jensen and Rune Frederiksen, from the Zoological Museum of the University of Copenhagen, dissected 40 pounds of coral hunks retrieved from a reef near the Faroe Islands, east of Iceland. They counted 4,626 organisms belonging to 256 species, with 42 other species in loose coral rubble that came up with the pieces. Nearly 100 species had never been recorded from that region before. And when the scientists compared the creatures with those from coral samples taken from reefs in Norway and the Bay of Biscay, there were only a few overlaps, indicating just how variegated this deep-sea quilt is.
Surprises continue to pop up.
He said the destruction from trawling could well be contributing to the drop in fish populations. But now they appear to be mostly knocked down, he said, and the fishing suffers. We take and take and take but never give. It's about time we did something for the ocean.