Although usually associated with shallow tropical seas, there are actually more species of coral in the deep ocean. These corals form diverse seabed habitats from spectacular coral gardens growing on extinct volcanic seamounts to huge deep-sea reefs. Over the last twenty years cold-water coral research has grown exponentially showing them to be amongst the most diverse and dynamic marine ecosystems. It is also now clear that cold-water corals are sentinels of change in the deep ocean. The pressures of rapidly changing ocean conditions and destructive human activities imperil cold-water corals. This talk will discuss these pressures and the steps we can take to conserve them for future generations.