Scientists in search of coral reef barriers which had been detected but not investigated in the 1960s, and were thought to be dead, discovered an apparently thriving ecosystem of deep-water corals.
Scientists in search of coral reef barriers which had been detected but not investigated in the 1960s, and were thought to be dead, discovered an apparently thriving ecosystem of deep-water corals. Using sonar surveys to narrow down their search areas and then an underwater drone and trail cameras to investigate, they identified a mesophotic coral garden teeming with species of reef-loving fish and multiple different varieties of coral. The researchers suspect that other as-yet undiscovered reef ecosystems could still be out there.
A missing-presumed-dead coral reef has been found alive and well off the coast of Benin. 1960s surveys, focused on identifying promising fishing areas, flagged a possible deep-water coral reef but assumed it must be dead. Now, using a modern sonar survey and the Deep Sea Camera System provided by the National Geographic Exploration Technology Lab, scientists have found an apparently healthy reef.
“It was not an easy field campaign,” said Gérard Zinzindohoué of the Institut de Recherches Halieutiques et Océanologiques du Bénin, lead author of the article in Frontiers in Marine Science. “It was a mix of long days at sea, technical problems, and a lot of uncertainty. But then we saw structures on the sonar that looked like they could be reef signatures, which gave us hope that we were close.
Read More: Frontiers
Image: A picture of the reef by Gérard Zinzindohoué (via Frontiers)
