Ireland has corals, and they survive in extreme conditions at the edge of a submarine canyon

By Aaron Lim, Post-doctoral Researcher, Marine Geoscience, University College Cork

Most people associate the word “coral” with sunshine, blue skies and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. In fact, more than half of the 5,100 species on the planet exist as “cold-water corals” in deep and dark parts of the world’s oceans.

Unlike most other animals, corals are immobile and so rely heavily on currents to transport tiny bits of organic material to feed on. Over time, in some cases millions of years, cold-water corals can grow to eventually…

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