Undersea Mountain Photos: Brittlestar Swarm, More Found
Feeding Starfish
A bright orange brisingid starfish on a seamount in the Macquarie Ridge near New Zealand raises its arms to feed in 2008.
Like underwater cities, seamounts sometimes are home to much higher populations of marine life than the surrounding seafloor, CenSeam scientists have found.
The rocky surfaces on many seamounts offer a hard substrate for corals to attach to. Once a sizable coral population has been established, other creatures—such as sponges, sea anemones, starfish, and fish—can move in.
(More Census of Marine Life pictures: "Hard-to-See Sea Creatures Revealed.")
"These corals create a habitat that wouldn't be there otherwise," CenSeam's Consalvey said.
Published October 1, 2010
