How do cold-water coral reefs survive without sunlight?

The answer

Cold-water corals, primarily Lophelia pertusa, build massive reef structures at depths of 200 to 2,000 meters in temperatures of 4 to 12°C. Unlike tropical corals, they lack photosynthetic algae and instead feed on organic particles and zooplankton carried by deep currents. Norway's Røst Reef, discovered in 2002, stretches 35 kilometers - one of the largest known coral reefs of any type. The Northeast Atlantic alone contains over 1,300 documented cold-water coral locations. These reefs are estimated to be up to 8,500 years old and support over 1,300 species. Bottom trawling has damaged an estimated 30 to 50 percent of Norway's cold-water reefs, prompting international protection efforts.