Brown Sea Fan, Pacifigorgia Sp.
Brown Seafan, Pacifigorgia Sp. Sea Fan provided by the commercial fishermen of the greater Los Cabos area, Baja California Sur, July 2009. Size: 23 cm (9.1 inches) x 34 cm (14 inches).
Brown Seafan, Pacifigorgia Sp. Underwater photograph taken in Zihuatanejo Bay, Guerrero, March 2018. Photograph courtesy of Ron Woheau, Zihuatanejo.
Phylogeny: The Brown Sea Fan, Pacifigorgia Sp., is an octocoral and a member of the Gorgoniidae Family of Gorgonians of soft corals. The nineteen genera within the Gorgoniidae Family are separated by the degree and type of spiculation, along with the pattern of branching and the morphology of the colony as a whole.
Morphology: The Pacifigorgia Corals have one or two fan-shaped planes with a mesh-like structure of variable size. They can be brown, red, purple or yellow in color and can grow to 76 cm (30 inches) in height. Living specimens have white polyps.
Habitat and Distribution: Members of the Pacifigorgia Genus are common but reside only in the waters of the Pacific with multiple hot spots off the coast of Ecuador and Panama. In Mexican waters they are primarily found along the coasts of the central and southern portions of the Sea of Cortez and along the southwest coast of the mainland. They are found attached to offshore reefs and rocks at depths up to 26 m (85 feet).
Diet: Pacifigorgia corals are sessile suspension feeders that depend on water movement to bring them food, such as amphipods, fish larvae, and other plankton.
Predators: Pacifigorgia corals are preyed upon by fish, gastropods and starfish.
Reproduction: Pacifigorgia coral colonies are gonochoric (male or female for life). They reproduce sexually through broadcast spawning with external fertilization. They can also reproduce asexually through fragmentation and by sending out runners (stolonization).
Ecosystem Roles: The Brown Sea Fan is poorly studied and very little is known about their behavioral patterns.
Request for Help: This identification should be considered tentative due to the very remote location of the first collection (Latitude 23oN and Longitude 110oW) photographed above. We have found very little scientific focus on this area of the world and therefore supporting scientific documentation is not available. We welcome additional information on this coral from anyone who cares to contact us.