Ocean Soup: In the "undisturbed waters" off South East North Carolina. And yet, more worms! Christmas Tree Worms, Spirobranchus sp. cluster on the hull of the artificial reef/wreck "Markham". When the vessel was sunk in 1994 it was capsized on it's port side to allow clearance for passing ship traffic. Maximum depth is round 25 metres, 85 feet, and the hull rises to 17 metres, 55 feet. There is a vast amount of hard, and fairly stable surface upon which colonies of sessile marine invertebrates can settle. For the curious, a close look will yield sights like this. Every centimetre thickly covered with life...and death. Within the 15 x 20 centimetres in this frame, aside from the worms, are sponges, hydroids, tunicates, singular coral polyps, algae's; dozens of marine plants and animals, some easily identified and others, not so. This is the life of our ocean; another world just over the horizon from where we live. And it begs us to do all we can to nurture it as we would our neighbours, our community.
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