Red gorgonian and California golden gorgonian on underwater rocky reef, San Clemente Island. The golden gorgonian is a filter-feeding temperate colonial species that lives on the rocky bottom at depths between 50 to 200 feet deep. Each individual polyp is a distinct animal, together they secrete calcium that forms the structure of the colony. Gorgonians are oriented at right angles to prevailing water currents to capture plankton drifting by.
Species: Red gorgonian, California golden gorgonian, Leptogorgia chilensis, Lophogorgia chilensis, Muricea californica
Location: San Clemente Island, California
Image ID: 38499
Divers Swim Over the Wreck of the HMCS Yukon in San Diego. Deliberately sunk in 2000 at San Diego's Wreck Alley to form an artifical reef, the HMCS Yukon is a 366-foot-long former Canadian destroyer. It is encrusted with a variety of invertebrate life, including Cornyactis anemones which provide much of the color seen here.
Location: San Diego, California
Image ID: 39474
Red gorgonian Leptogorgia chilensis, purple hydrocoral Stylaster californicus, and yellow zoanthid anemone Epizoanthus giveni, at Farnsworth Banks, Catalina Island.
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 39540
Dendronephthya soft corals and schooling Anthias fishes, feeding on plankton in strong ocean currents over a pristine coral reef. Fiji is known as the soft coral capitlal of the world.
Species: Anthias, Dendronephthya soft coral, Dendronephthya, Pseudanthias
Location: Fiji
Image ID: 31340
Colorful anemones and soft corals, bryozoans and kelp cover the rocky reef in a kelp forest near Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Strait. Strong currents bring nutrients to the invertebrate life clinging to the rocks.
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Image ID: 34328
Colorful anemones and soft corals, bryozoans and kelp cover the rocky reef in a kelp forest near Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Strait. Strong currents bring nutrients to the invertebrate life clinging to the rocks.
Species: Giant plumose anemone, Metridium farcimen
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Image ID: 34332
Colorful anemones and soft corals, bryozoans and kelp cover the rocky reef in a kelp forest near Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Strait. Strong currents bring nutrients to the invertebrate life clinging to the rocks.
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Image ID: 34333
A blue whale eating krill. This blue whale is seen feeding and surfacing amid krill with its throat fully engorged with krill and water. It will push the water back out with its tongue, trapping the krill in its baleen which acts like a filter. Aerial photo, Baja California.
Species: Blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus
Image ID: 05837