Beneath the Blue



An award winning cold-water coral film by ARTWORK Inc. for the South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council. Developed in conjunction with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh and the UNCW Center for Marine Science.

Running time: 19m 57s / 18mb (WMV)ยท (QT).

Copyright: ARTWORK Inc (2008).

Video footage of a Lophelia pertusa reef from the Mingulay Reef Complex. Footage taken using a drop down video camera system.

Video copyright of SAMS and Greenpeace 2005.


Video footage of a Lophelia pertusa reef from the Mingulay Reef Complex. Footage taken using a drop down video camera system.

Video copyright of SAMS and Greenpeace 2005.


Video footage from Haltenpipe reef A, Norway. An individual fish of the species, Molva molva swims around a small thicket of coral.

Video copyright of Statoil ASA, Norway (1997).


Video footage from Haltenpipe reef A, Norway. The ROV follows a red fish, before moving close to an anemone.

Video copyright of Statoil ASA, Norway (1997).


The beautiful, violet octocoral Anthothela grandiflora (Sars, 1856) was found on a 60 m wide and 6 m high Lophelia-reef inside a 10 m deep pockmark crater at the Morvin field, off Mid-Norway. Besides this rare colony of grandiflora, which grows on dead Lophelia, there is an extremely high density of the large bivalve Acesta excavata.

Video copyright of Martin Hovland, Statoil Hydro (2008).


Video from the Haltenpipe Reef, the ROV glides over a large bank of dead coral framework, adorned with large gorgonian corals.

Video copyright of Statoil ASA, Norway (1997).


Footage from a large Lophelia bank at Haltenpipe, including a few gorgonian corals.

Video copyright of Statoil ASA, Norway (1997).


A shoal of deep-sea fish captured as the ROV traverses down a slope.

Video copyright of Statoil ASA, Norway (1997).


An amazing specimen of Paragorgia arborea at the foot of the Haltenpipe Reefs.

Video copyright of Statoil ASA, Norway (1997).


In 2006, SAMS teamed up with the BBC programme Seawatch on a trip to Mingulay. Equipped with an ROV, we took pictures of the Lophelia reef at 180 metres deep. Have a look at the preview footage...

Video copyright of SAMS/BBC 2006 .

External videos

Click here to watch video!
Cold Coral Deep - Scientists using hi-tech remote submarines have found corals at extreme depths in the world's cold oceans. But they have also found widespread damage to reefs from deep sea trawling. Earth Report investigates.

Running time: 22 minutes.

Copyright: BBC / UNEP

Format: Real Player or Windows Media.

Watch at: BBC Website