Black Coral

Black corals, also called thorn corals, are an order of soft deep-water corals recognised by their jet-black or dark brown skeletons of protein and chitin, which are surrounded by coloured living polyps. Despite the name, the living coral is rarely black. The order is found in nearly every ocean and depth. In Hawaiian it is called ēkaha kū moana, "hard bush growing in the sea", and it is Hawaii's official state gem; in Malay it is akah bahar, "root of the sea". Indonesian, Chinese and Hawaiian cultures have associated black coral with mystical and medicinal properties, and many Indo-Pacific peoples believed it had curative and anti-evil powers and made it into necklaces and bracelets. Its only modern use is jewellery. Black corals are declining because of poaching, ocean acidification and climate change. This entry has no formal name, because the page describes a whole order rather than one species.