AARON LIM, THE CONVERSATION 16 JANUARY 2021 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 form huge skyscraper-sized structures on the seabed called "coral mounds". These structures are common in the northeast Atlantic at the edge of the Irish continental shelf. They can be several kilometres long and reach 100 metres (328 feet) or more in height – taller than any building in Ireland.