Deepest alga

The greatest depth at which algae has been found is 295 m (968 ft) for an unidentified species of crustose coralline algae documented by Mark and Diane Littler (both USA) of the Smithsonian Institution on a seamount off San Salvador, Bahamas, in October 1984.

These maroon-coloured red algae survived although 99.9995 per cent of sunlight was filtered out at their location on the seabed.

Despite often being referred to as marine plants, and sharing certain characteristics such as photosynthesis, algae actually sit within the group of eukaryotic organisms known as protists (Protista), which include amoeba, slime-moulds and protozoa.