Zoology Collection - Coral Specimen, Around Fibre-Optic Cable

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Sometimes human interference with the environment can have bizarre consequences. This deep-sea coral species (Desmophyllum dianthus) is found throughout the world’s oceans. Nothing unusual here – except the piece you are looking at grew around a fibre-optic telephone cable. And this section of the cable, which connected Beaver Harbour, Nova Scotia to Widemouth Bay in England, had been resting on the ocean floor to the southeast of Sable Island at a depth of more than three kilometers.

Object type: 
Invertebrate
Object #: 
15977
Collection name: 
Date (age/made): 
Recent
Origin/place: 
Southeast of Sable Island, NS
Materials: 
Silica
Dimensions: 
7.8 cm L x 8.3 cm W x 5.6 cm H