The Sea Fan Coral

The sea fan also known as gorgonian is a sessile colonial cnidarian order that is found in the oceans worldwide. This type of coral is especially found in the subtropic and tropic oceans. The gorgonian has a similarity to the sea pen, which is also a type of coral. The fan coral can be several feet high and across, but only a few inches on its thickness. This type of coral is usually red, purple or yellow.

The sea fan coral is primary found in shallow deep waters, but some have also been found at depths of thousands of feet. The size, appearance and shape vary depending in the location of their habitat. The corals found in shallow waters with strong currents are flexible and fan shaped corals.The ones found in deep and calm waters are usually stiffer, thinner and taller corals.

Back in 1996, a researcher who had investigated sea fans in Florida, had reported that he had found lesions and browning on these corals. This researcher had contacted the Broward county staff regarding the issue that he had found on these sea fan corals. According to the county staff they were not aware about this problem that affected the gorgonians. The Broward county staff stated that after they received the report from the researcher they started to see purple patches on many fan corals, which caused the webbing of the fan to rot. They were able to view this problem with other fan corals through their monitoring system.

There were two doctors that studied them and discovered that terrestrial fungus known as Aspergillus was also attacking these corals in other locations of the country. Several researchers had video and photograph the disease that affected the sea fan of the Broward county. Unfortunately this disease killed many corals in the sea of the county of Broward.