Underwater Photography by Jay Torborg 

"Christmas Tree Worm #2"

The Christmas Tree Worm (Spirobranchus giganteus) is found throughout tropical waters from the shallows to 30 meters (100 feet) deep and can be yellow, blue, purple, red, orange, or brown. The two spirals are a single worm. This worm is growing into living lobe coral (Porites lobata); if you look closely, you can see the ring of 12 tentacles surrounding the mouth of each polyp.

This worm was photographed in about 40 feet of water off the south Kohala Coast near Puako Beach on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Photographed with a Nikon N90s in a Sea&Sea NX90 housing with two Ikelite 200 strobes. Nikon 60mm f2.8 macro lens. Fuji Provia 100F transparency film scanned with a Nikon LS-2000.

Copyright Jay Torborg  2001