Editing – editing: Stelios Vasiloudis
The mega coral – which is a collection of many connected, tiny creatures that together form an organism – could be more than 300 years old and is larger than a blue whale, the team of scientists says. It was found by a videographer working on a National Geographic ship that visits remote parts of the Pacific to see how they have been affected by climate change.
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“I went to dive in a place where the map said there was a wreck and then I saw something,” said Manu San Felix. He called his diving friend, who is also Inigo’s son, and they dived down to inspect it. Seeing the coral was like seeing an “underwater cathedral,” he said. “It was very emotional. I felt tremendous respect for something that stayed firmly in one place and survived for hundreds of years,” he said.
Scientists on the mission measured the coral using a type of underwater tape measure. It is 34 meters wide, 32 meters long and 5.5 meters high and could be visible from space. Globally corals are under severe pressure as oceans warm with climate change leading to water acidification.
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Corals are made up of hundreds of thousands of living organisms called polyps, each with its own body and mouth, which grow together as a colony. Some corals develop hard external skeletons and when many of them merge together they form a coral reef. Some of these reefs can extend enormous distances, forming very large structures where fish and other species live. Coral reefs also support the livelihoods of a billion people, including supporting tourism and fisheries, according to the World Economic Forum.
This specimen was found in deeper water – than other coral reefs – which may have protected it from warmer sea surface temperatures.
The discovery was announced at the same time as the COP29 UN climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan are trying to make progress on tackling climate change.
Trevor Manemahaga, Solomon Islands’ climate minister at the summit, told BBC News his state was proud of the newly discovered coral. “We want people to know that this is a special place and it needs to be protected,” he said.
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“We rely primarily on marine resources for economic survival, so corals are very, very important to us. It is very important and critical for our economy to ensure that our corals are not destroyed,” he added.
Small island states like the Solomon Islands are extremely vulnerable to climate change. Manemahaga said he has seen first-hand the effects of global warming in his country, as it causes stronger cyclones and erodes the coastline causing houses to fall into the water.
At the Baku talks, many developing countries are asking for more cash from richer nations to help pay for their strategies to tackle climate change. Manemahaga said more funding for the Solomon Islands would help his country create a wider range of jobs that would mean fewer people working in industries that damage coral reefs.
Currently, logging is a significant part of the country’s economy – between 50-70% of its annual export earnings – but causes high levels of water pollution that damages the area’s coral. Eric Brown, a coral scientist on the National Geographic research expedition, says the health of the coral they discovered was “very good.”
“While nearby shallow reefs have been degraded by warmer seas, the existence of this large healthy coral oasis in slightly deeper water is a beacon of hope,” he said.
The coral is a species called Pavona clavus and provides a supportive environment for shrimp, crabs, fish and other marine creatures.
The age of this massive specimen also means it can act as a window into the history of past ocean conditions. Scientists hope to study it to learn more about how it developed.
A report this week found that 44% of warm-water corals are threatened with extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. This is an increase of one third since the last assessment of the species in 2008.
Source: BBC News
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