Two Lopehlia coral colonies growing on a small metal on a portion of the subsea completion structure in block Mississippi Canyon 355 at a depth of about 1,500 ft. Red laser beams, projected from the ROV, represent a separation of 10 centimeters (~4″).
Kate Lund, a research scientist, observes the pillar coral as it is spawning in the Upper Keys.
It means that the pillar coral colonies, Dendrogyra cylindricus, are strong and healthy as they have enough energy to invest in producing eggs and sperm for sexual reproduction.
Incidentally if you want to build your own higher end underwater ROV, check out our blog post on the OpenROV project.
(via Make)