Bright Coral Brittle Star Jungle Gym
Some of the most beautiful, bright colors are found in the deep sea. During our dive on an unnamed seamount roughly 60 nautical miles southeast of Wake Island, we found this stunningly bright yellow coral draped with deep-sea associates. This massive specimen (speculated to be a type of bamboo coral) was covered in pink brittle stars - one of the more camera-shy ones made a speedy exit.
Carefully, our expert pilots snipped a small coral branch to bring back to E/V Nautilus’s wet lab for preservation and future investigation. Studying corals and the animals that live alongside them is critical to understanding how animals survive in even the coldest, darkest parts of planet Earth.
Ocean Exploration Trust's Exploration of Wake Island's Deep-Sea expedition (NA181) is supported by NOAA Ocean Exploration via the Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute.
Exploration of Wake Island's Deep Sea
Located roughly midway between the Hawaiian and Mariana Islands, Wake Island is one of the most isolated land masses on Earth. While there have been some recent expeditions to this remote region, the vast majority of the 407,241 square kilometers of seafloor surrounding Wake remains unmapped and uncharacterized, thereby representing one of the most poorly surveyed areas under US jurisdiction.
