On Sun, 13 Jun 2010 22:18:24 -0700, "nom=de=plume"
wrote:

I have no doubt that coral exists in lots of places. Seems to me that you
can almost always avoid them if you're careful.


Not always true, depends on where you are.

You said that "there is no real need to avoid them," but in the previous
sentence said that they "are very sharp and abrasive." Seems to me that
there is a real need to avoid them.

There is no need to avoid them for ecological reasons, and assuming
you have a decent length of chain attached to your anchor, as everyone
should, there is no reason to be concerned about abrasion either.