Behind the art of black coral For centuries, black coral has been harvested as a charm and a medicine.
Living in colonies that can be thousands of years old, black coral, which is a group of thorny corals called Antipathidae, is found most commonly in tropical and subtropical waters.
Many early cultures believed black coral had the power to ward off evil and injury.
The living parts of the 150 or so species of black corals may be black, red, orange, brown, green, yellow, or white, and they can grow in a wide range of shapes. Some have a single, spiral coil, while others have a fan shape or tree-like branches.
It is the dark colour of the tightly-layered central skeleton of horn-like protein that gives black coral its name, and from which black coral jewellery is made.
Unlike the reef-building corals you’ll spot snorkelling in Cayman’s shallower waters, black corals are not hosts to the symbiotic algae that require light to survive and give coral reefs their bright colours. They seem to like the dark. Most black corals are found below 120 feet, but they can live in water as deep as 20,000 feet, where no light can reach them. They survive by eating animal plankton carried by ocean currents.
Like a tree ring, skeleton growth rings can be used to estimate the age of the colony. Colonies usually live about 70 years. But recent research conducted on the Earth’s deep-sea corals discovered black coral specimens around 4265 years old, making them among the oldest continuously living organisms on the planet.
Colonies also host unique communities of marine life. Each coral may host a different combination of species, including some that only live on black coral, many of which are new to science. You might have even spotted some unknowingly during a stroll down the beach. It’s that small branch, faintly grey in colour and with small spikes down one side, which you now see is attached to a piece of hard coral. Polished to gleaming perfection, the jewellery made from this underwater gem has been treasured for centuries.
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