Red coral  (Corallium rubrum)

The beauty of Corallium corals may be their downfall, as they are harvested at unsustainable levels to be made into expensive jewellery or desirable art objects. Each coral colony is formed from thousands of individual, but genetically identical, coral polyps; basically anemone-like animals that secrete a skeleton. White, transparent Corallium polyps, each bearing eight tentacles, form tall, branching, tree-like colonies. These can attain heights from 50 centimetres to over one meter, and range in colour from pure white to shades of pink, salmon, blood-red and orange (1).