A giant coral reef discovered off Tahiti
This discovery of large and healthy corals is an exception even as reefs are hit by climate change and rising ocean temperatures.
The reef is three kilometers long and between 30 and 65 meters wide, between 35 and 70 meters deep.
AFP
Scientists have discovered a giant, healthy, rose-shaped coral reef more than 30 meters deep off the coast of Tahiti, an important discovery as coral reefs suffer from climate change.
“It is one of the largest coral reefs in the world to be more than 30 meters deep,” said Unesco in a statement, which supports this scientific mission. “The immaculate condition of the rose-shaped corals and the extent of the area they cover make this a very unusual discovery,” says Unesco.
The reef extends over three kilometers long and between 30 and 65 meters wide, between 35 and 70 meters deep, specifies Unesco. Some giant corals are two meters in diameter. “It’s an underexplored area. What we know well are the areas between zero and 30 meters”, explains to AFP Laetitia Hedouin, marine biologist and coral specialist, from the French research center CNRS and the environmental research organization CRIOBE. “These corals do not show signs of stress or disease,” she continues, as corals closer to the surface in French Polynesia experienced a bleaching episode in 2019. Starfish can also ravage corals by devouring them.
Only 20% of seabed mapped
The diving expedition took place in November 2021, thanks to specific diving equipment to go down that far. “The team carried out dives totaling around 200 hours to study the reef and were able to witness the spawning of the coral”, specifies Unesco. Temperature sensors have been placed in the area. “We are at the start of a monitoring program that we hope will be long-term”, to better understand why this coral reef has visibly not suffered from climate change and what its population dynamics are.
This discovery also raises the question of “taking into account these deep zones in the development of marine protected areas”, underlines Laetitia Bédouins. The state of knowledge of the oceans is still limited, with only 20% of the seabed of the planet (…) mapped”, underlines Unesco.
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