Don’t get too excited, cowboys – cracking this sea whip would harm the fragile animal.  That’s right, this is a photo of an animal – or many animals, actually.  Sea whips are a type of deep-sea coral, and the “whip” structure is composed of a bunch of tiny polyps, each with its own mouth and tiny tentacles.   These colonies live on the sea floor, and are sometimes collected during fish trawl surveys like this one was.  Couple them with ocean tumbleweeds and you’d have yourself a sure-fire ocean Western.