coral

Scientists found this stunning ‘secret garden’ of corals thousands of feet below the sea

13 May, 2018

Source: Business Insider
Author: Jeremy Berke

Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration conducted an expedition to explore uncharted waters in the deepest parts of the Gulf of Mexico— and they found an astonishing “secret garden” of coral thousands of feet below the surface.

Using a remote-operated submersible (ROV), the researchers came across a vibrant, underwater community of bamboo corals over 7,500 feet down.

“This is a truly magnificent garden of coral fans, I don’t think we’ve seen these densities yet in the Gulf of Mexico,” one of the expedition’s scientists said as the ROV revealed the collection of corals.

For a community of corals this dense to exist in the inky darkness thousands of feet below the sea, a lot of factors need to align, according to NOAA.

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Protecting cold water corals that support an array of wildlife off our coasts

14 April, 2018

Source: The Irish Times
Author: Michael Viney

Lophelia pertusa has nothing to with Hamlet’s damsel in the river and is not, for that matter, even Latin. I was once dropped from a “bright” stream in school for my apparent lack of effort with that language, a lacuna (there you are) now sometimes regretted.

Continue reading Protecting cold water corals that support an array of wildlife off our coasts

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Needle in a haystack: identifying vulnerable marine ecosystems in the deep sea

12 December, 2017

Source: Marine Conservation Institute 
Author: Sam Georgian

Seamounts are underwater mountains rising thousands of feet from the bottom of the ocean. Due to their size and shape, seamounts exert a strong influence on local currents that results in nutrient enrichment and increased food supply. As a result, these massive features are often highly productive ‘oases’ in the deep sea, supporting a large diversity of species including functionally important deep-sea corals (Stocks and Hart 2007). Deep-sea corals provide essential habitat structures for a large number of associated organisms, including many commercially important fish. These communities are currently at risk from a number of threats including climate change, oil and gas extraction, and benthic fisheries.

Continue reading Needle in a haystack: identifying vulnerable marine ecosystems in the deep sea

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How trawling is destroying our deep-sea coral gardens and the planet’s oldest living creatures

24 August, 2017

Source: International Business Times
Author: Michelle Taylor, Chris Roterman

The mysterious habitats of the deep are being destroyed before we know anything about them.

Given its vastness and apparent remoteness from our everyday lives, the deep sea has been widely considered protected from the impacts of the human era, known as the Anthropocene. This, unfortunately, is not true.

Continue reading How trawling is destroying our deep-sea coral gardens and the planet’s oldest living creatures

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