Home > Invertebrates > Octocorals > Gorgonia ventalina

Family Gorgoniidae

TROPICAL WESTERN ATLANTIC

Gorgonia ventalina

Big Pine Key, Florida, 10 feet

Benwood wreck, Key Largo, FL, 40 feet

COMMON SEA FAN

Common on reefs at any depth.  Cortex purple, orange, or brown with brown polyps, branchlets appear smooth since they are rounded or slightly compressed in same plane as colony.  The related Gorgonia flabellum appears coarse since branchlets are compressed perpendicular to the colony axis.  Bermuda through Florida & the Caribbean, excluding the Gulf of Mexico.