The Darwin Mounds, an important area of cold water coral reefs discovered in 1988, are about deep in the Atlantic Ocean, about north-west of Cape Wrath in the north-east corner of the Rockall Trough. The area covers approximately and contains hundreds of mounds of about in diameter and in height, many having a teardrop shaped 'tail' orientated south-west of the mound. This feature may be unique globally. The tops of the mounds have living stands of "Lophelia" corals and support significant populations of the single-celled "Syringammina fragilissima". Fish have been observed in the vicinity but not at higher densities than the background environment. Damage from trawler fishing was visible over about a half of the eastern Darwin Mounds surveyed during summer 2000, and the UK government is taking steps to protect the area. In 2003 the European Commission provided emergency protection and banned damaging fishing activity in the locality.