To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Corals are a beautiful and important part of our ocean. But they can't move around the ocean floor. So, how, exactly, do they find mates? See the bizarre and beautiful phenomenon of coral spawning in this Ocean Today video.

Once a year, on cues from the lunar cycle and the water temperature, entire colonies of coral reefs simultaneously release their tiny eggs and sperm, called gametes, into the ocean. The phenomenon brings to mind an underwater blizzard with billions of colorful flakes cascading in white, yellow, red, and orange.

In ways that scientists still do not fully understand, mature corals release their gametes all at the same time. This synchrony is crucial, because the gametes of most coral species are viable for only a few hours. The “blizzard” makes it more likely that fertilization will occur.

The gametes, full of fatty substances called lipids, rise slowly to the ocean surface, where the process of fertilization begins.