Threats

Many cold-water corals grow slowly and can be very long-lived, making them susceptible to natural damage and human activities. In some cases cold-water corals and the reefs they form may take hundreds or thousands of years to recover. Click on a threat below to find how it could affect cold-water coral ecosystems.

Deep-sea

trawling

Oil and gas

drilling

Climate

change

 An American bottom trawling fishing vessel © E. Norse, MCBI  A working oil platform © www.headhunterinc.com. Sea temperature of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans © www.csm.ornl.gov