CoralOccasionalVisible while snorkeling

Waving hand coral

Anthelia glauca

A carpet of bluish-grey feathery polyps that ripples in the slightest current, as if a thousand tiny hands were waving at you.

Photo: iNaturalist – (c) lindra, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by lindra

At first glance the waving hand coral (Anthelia glauca) looks like an underwater meadow: long, feathery, bluish-grey to pale brownish polyps grow in a dense carpet from a shared basal tissue and sway gracefully with every water movement. Its English name comes from exactly this. It is easy to tell apart from the pulsating soft coral: Anthelia polyps do not open and close on their own – they only rock with the current.

Anthelia is a soft coral with one curious trait: it cannot retract its polyps. While most corals "close up" when threatened, this species always stands in full dress – which is why the colony looks like a constantly moving, living carpet. Symbiotic algae live in its tissues, and it broods its larvae within the colony, so the offspring often settle right next to the parent.

Around Hurghada you find it on sheltered reef slopes, plateaus and rubble patches, where it is often quick to overgrow dead coral surfaces. It occurs in the shallows too, so snorkelers can watch it as well. The rule is the same as for every coral: the soft, waving carpet is tempting, but we never touch – even the gentlest contact damages the colony.

Did you know?

Anthelia is one of the very few corals completely unable to retract its polyps – the colony stands with "open arms" day and night, whether it likes it or not.

Where can you meet it?

It appears in patches on Hurghada's more sheltered reefs: look for it on the inner side of El Fanadir, on the Abu Ramada plateaus and in the shallow coral garden of Shaab Sabina.

Frequently asked questions

No, it is an animal: a coral colony made of many tiny eight-armed polyps. The waving, meadow-like look is deceptive – the coral is not moving itself; the current rocks the polyps like wind through a wheat field.

Pulsating soft coral polyps open and close rhythmically under their own power – Anthelia only sways passively with the water. Hover above it in calm water and Anthelia sits still, while Heteroxenia keeps pumping.

It is harmless to humans, but the question is more interesting the other way round: your touch harms it. Soft coral tissue is extremely delicate, so the diver's rule is simple – photograph it, admire it, never touch it.