Animal profile

Sea Fan

Gorgonia ventalina

AnthozoaShallow reef slopes and hard bottom in the Caribbean

Field profile

The common sea fan is a purple gorgonian that grows as a flat mesh of fused branches on Caribbean reefs. Colonies can exceed a metre in height. The flexible skeleton is a protein called gorgonin rather than solid limestone.

Published field notes

2024-02-11

Sea Fan

Sea fans grow flat across the prevailing current

A gorgonian fan is a plane, and that plane sits perpendicular to the water flow. The orientation is not aesthetic. It puts the maximum number of feeding polyps into moving water carrying plankton, and a fan facing the wrong way feeds poorly.

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