A large bamboo coral from the Huon Marine Park (1146 m depth). In this region these corals can grow to at least 2 metres tall and live for at least 370 years.
by CSIRO
Patience seamount is the only seamount off temperate Australia where the abundant basketwork eel spawns (1092 metres depth). The eels co-exist there with schools of orange roughy.
by CSIRO
Seamounts provide hard, elevated and current-swept habitats that create a hotspot of species diversity and abundance. Here sea stars, feather stars, soft corals, glass sponges and sea urchins live among a thicket of stony corals and sea whips (1106 metres depth).
by CSIRO
Deposits of Tasmania's mineral emblem, Crocoite, on a seamount peak adjacent to the Huon Marine Park (1202 metres depth). This rare lead-chromate crystal is known only from terrestrial mines, prominently in western Tasmania.
by CSIRO
An Eastern Rock Lobster (Sagmariasus verreauxi) foraging on a deep reef within the Huon Marine Park. Note the white coloration on the lobster, a typical feature of lobsters on deep shelf reefs in Tasmanian coastal waters. It is only when lobsters forage in shallower water that they attain their typical red colouration, a result of the higher abundance of carotinoid pigments in the marco- and encrusting algal assemblages which upon consumption will accumulate in the lobster's exoskeleton. Lobsters are regularly seen in AUV imagery from the Huon Marine Park.
by Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies
An orange roughy swims across a region where bottom trawling has removed the benthos, leaving behind a flat 2D surface of coral rubble (1061 metres depth). Species composition differs and faunal density is higher in areas where 3D habitats are formed by structural corals.
by CSIRO
A pristine benthic coral community showing stony and soft corals, with numerous sea urchins and feather stars living on and in a matrix of old stony coral matrix (1202 metres depth). These fauna are typical of seamount habitats in never-trawled regions of the Huon Marine Park.
by CSIRO
A pristine benthic coral community dominated by Solenosmilia variabilis (1021 metre depth). This coral forms large areas of reef habitat on the deep-sea seamounts in the Huon Marine Park which provides food, habitat and shelter to a diverse range of marine species.
by CSIRO
A seascape impacted by bottom-trawling where only relatively small, flexible and more resilient corals remain (1118 metres depth). Slow coral growth rates means recovery of these ecosystems is expected to be protracted; little change was observed over a decade during a CSIRO study.
by CSIRO