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Oceans were the birth place and nursery of life and they are still its main residence. Tropical seas are famed for their big breakers and coral reefs, seen here in slow motion engulfing the camera. But the sea is not all one habitat. Just as land has distinct environments inhabited by creatures that are found nowhere else, so does the see. A coral lagoon is a world of its own. Corals are demanding, requiring good light, clear unpolluted water and warmth. They find these conditions at their best in the tropics, flourishing particularly around the small islands that are the summits of submarine mountains. They grow outwards into the water building on top of their own skeletons to form wide, shallow lagoons. The variety of corals is immense: some are soft and rubbery, others are hard and flexible like a horn, but most are stony. The organisms that build these structures tonne upon tonne, occupy only the outer skin. The rest is dead. The way in which the organisms branch determines the shape of the colony, forming antlers and organ pipes, whips and fans, vases and buttons.