Coral reefs of the Virgin Islands other coral larvae to attach to and grow on. These corals can form into three different structures; fringing reefs, which are reefs that are close to the shore, barrier reefs, which are reefs that are alongside the shore and is separated by deep water, and an atoll reef which is a coral reef that circles a lagoon or body of water. As stated, the coral reefs such as fringing reefs, deep reefs, patch reefs and spur and groove formation are distributed over three islands in the Virgin Islands which are St. Croix (Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological
Deep-water coral extended to . Scientists recently deployed concrete reef balls in an attempt to provide habitat for fish and coral. Scientists estimate that trawling has damaged or destroyed 30 to 50 percent of the Norwegian shelf coral area. The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, the European Commission’s main scientific advisor on fisheries and environmental issues in the northeast Atlantic, recommend mapping and closing Europe’s deep corals to fishing trawlers. In 1999, the Norwegian Ministry of Fisheries closed an area of containing the large Sula Reef to bottom trawling. In 2000, an additional area closed, covering about . An