Paris, Jan 20, 2022 (AFP) – A group of scientists has discovered a reef with giant pink-shaped corals in good condition more than 30 meters deep along Tahiti, an important discovery in the face of the setback of these ecosystems due to climate change.
“It is one of the largest coral reefs in the world at more than 30 meters deep”, said UNESCO, which supported the scientific mission.
“The impeccable state of the rose-shaped corals and the extension of the area they cover make them a very rare find”, says UNESCO.
The reef has three kilometers long, between 30-65 meters wide and between 35-70 meters deep, highlights UNESCO. Some corals measure two meters in diameter.
“It is an area that is little explored. What we know well are the areas between zero and 30 meters”, explained to AFP Laetitia Hedouin, marine biologist and specialist in corals from the French research center CNRS and the international research body CRIOBE.
“These corals show no signs of stress or disease”, he continues, in contrast to the corals located closer to the surface in French Polynesia, which experienced a bleaching episode in 2019.
The diving expedition took place in November 2021 thanks to specific diving equipment to descend to that depth. “The equipment made dives that totaled about 200 hours to study the reef and managed to see the reproduction of the coral”, said UNESCO.
Temperature sensors were installed in the region. “We are at the beginning of a surveillance program that we hope (will be) long term” to better understand the reef’s good conservation status despite climate change.
The finding raises the question of “consideration of these deep areas in the elaboration of marine protected areas”, said Hedouin.
The oceans are the planet’s great unknowns, with “only 20% of the seabeds (…) mapped” , highlighted UNESCO.
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