Osprey Reef Osprey Reef Osprey Reef is a submerged atoll in the Coral Sea, northeast of Queensland, Australia. It is part of the Northwestern Group of the Coral Sea Islands. Osprey Reef is roughly oval in shape, measuring , and covers around . It has a perimeter of . The central lagoon is only deep. The reef sits atop a seamount in deep water. It is an isolated location some from other reefs. The almost vertical reef walls, which rise from a depth of about , are home to a dwarf form of "Nautilus pompilius" that is isolated from other nautilus populations
Deep-water coral than tropical corals because there are no zooxanthellae to feed them. "Lophelia" has a linear polyp extension of about per year. By contrast, branching shallow-water corals, such as "Acropora", may exceed 10–20 cm/yr. Reef structure growth estimates are about per year. Scientists have also found "Lophelia" colonies on oil installations in the North Sea. Using coral age-dating methods, scientists have estimated that some living deep-water corals date back at least 10,000 years. Deep-water corals use nematocysts on their tentacles to stun prey. Deep-water corals feed on zooplankton, crustaceans and even krill. Coral can reproduce sexually or asexually. In asexual reproduction