Photo copyright Tim Nicholson, whose underwater photographs and photo books are available from http://www.photoboxgallery.com/timnicholson.
Taken on Little Brother in the Egyptian Red Sea.
Sea Fan.

Sea fans are gorgonian corals. They grow at right angles to the prevaling current, their tentacles straining microscopic particles of food from the water.

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News stories about coral.

Further Reading
The Blue Planet, by Alastair Fothergill, Martha Holmes, Sir David Attenborough, BBC Consumer Publishing, 2001, ISBN 056-33-8498-0
The Red Sea in Egypt Part II, Invertebrates, by Farid S Atiya, Elias Modern Printing House, 1994, ISBN 977-00-6697-4