Creatures of the Coral Reef

## Description

*Entities that make their homes in coral reef deposits around the world.*

To your surprise, when you try to open it like you would a book, you realize that it is made of *tin.* The cover easily pops off, to reveal a large two-hour reel of film nestled within. Looks like a wildlife documentary.

## Excerpt

### Section

Cold-Water Corals

[*EXT scene - panning shot of the ocean in semidarkness, covered in pale and bone-white corals, with smatterings of red and yellow anemones. Soft orchestra music plays.*]

NARRATOR: While the colourful coral reefs most accessible to humans most often lie in shallow, tropical waters, the majority of coral reefs live in cold water in temperate regions. Unlike their sun-loving counterparts, these corals do not need sunlight to survive. Instead the polyps feed on the algae and microscopic life-forms drifting by on the ocean current. Likewise, the entities found here are less likely to be photo-synthesizers and herbivores, instead catching and ensnaring prey.

[*A tentacle slithers out from behind a coral reef and grabs a nearby fish. It vanishes instantaneously. A slow time-lapse shows a brittle star devouring a piece of flesh. The camera then cheerily cuts to the seafloor covered in coral clusters.*]

NARRATOR: The coral in these parts do not form 'reefs' in the traditional sense, resembling either thickets or groves-- they are found in the high-altitude, cool, dark waters off the coast of Britain, Scandinavia, and either side of the Americas. Contrary to their name, these reefs can often be found close to the surface and are occasionally exposed at low tide, extending even deeper, potentially into the abyss.

*[Tracking shot of an icy, Scandinavian shoreline.]*

 NARRATOR: There is much we still do not know about cold-water reefs-- how far down they go, and the things that live there. But from here, we can only rely on the account of entities that can withstand pressure of the continental shelf, and the findings of several deep-sea bathysphere excursions.

[*The camera slowly pans in on a network of coral. An anemone drifts in the breeze, and one can see tiny, live polyps catching the drifting ocean debris on the current. A different piece of coral begins rapidly growing, as though a time-lapse film, reaching slowly towards the camera and encroaching in on the lens.*]

NARRATOR: Portions of the corals itself are often imbibed with microscopic ocean entities; they are distinguishable from their mundane counterparts in that they will reproduce at an alarming rate, building up calcium deposits in sheer minutes. Similarly to related tree-guardian entities on the surface of our Earth, these entities appear to function as guardians of the corals. On more than one occasion, they have been known to rip the fishing nets of deep-sea trawlers, and ensnare the legs of deep-sea divers.

[*A foot shoots out of left field, kicking the coral to pieces and freeing the camera; chalky coral dust suddenly obscures the ocean, turning the shot a cloudy white colour. The picture cuts to a common squid, drifting lazily through open ocean.]*

NARRATOR: Fortunately, like corals itself, these entities' bodies are fast-growing but brittle: with enough quickness of foot and strength, it is not difficult to break their grasp.

While the cold waters of Northern Europe are known to contain two species of squid, the European mer-folk and their related cousin, the Scottish selkie, do not venture down to these mysterious depths. They cite strange tales of women with shark's teeth and long, suckered appendages.

[*A strange-looking girl with dark hair and brown, wide-set round eyes faces the camera, smiling strangely and tilting her head at the lens. She is bobbing up and down in the water, shoulders bare. She speaks Scots Gaelic, with subtitles over footage of a herd of seals hunting for fish.*]

SUBTITLE: ... We do not have a name for it! Only swear words! But if one swims too deep, to where the light does not reach, some do not return for air. It steals your skins. The sirens will bargain with it, sometimes. But we know better.

[*The girl grins*.]

SUBTITLE: When the fish are not swimming, we will drop a decoy, an elderly or a child. Then, we will lure the tentacles out from the reefs and eat them. It always grows new ones in its place.

NARRATOR: Corresponding with these tales is local superstition of deep-sea tentaculas and krakens that capsize ships and breed along the reef thickets. But they are elusive, and do not come out easily-- unless tempted.