Aug 29th 2018: Reef

[xoxoxoBruce]

It's not every day that you find a huge, previously undiscovered biological feature sitting right off a major U.S. coastline, but that's exactly what scientists manning the research vessel Atlantis stumbled upon while exploring some 160 miles off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina.

There, about a half mile below the ocean's surface, lies a dense forest of deep sea coral that stretches for at least 85 miles. It's a humongous ecosystem that has probably been developing for at least a few hundred thousand years.

The existence of the reef, which was initially flagged from sonar mapping, was officially confirmed using a pair of submersible dives. The expedition's original mission was to explore uncharted canyons, gas seeps and coral ecosystems off the Atlantic coast. No one thought that they'd find something like this, though.

The live corals are living upon giant mounds of rubble that were constructed by the corals that came before them. It's a massive piece of scaffolding that accumulates as corals die and leave their skeletal remains behind. Cordes estimates that coral has likely been growing here for millennia. He also predicts that the reef probably plays a keystone role in the region's fisheries. The team witnessed at least one giant swordfish cruising over the corals during their time in the submersible.

Unfortunately Trump’s decision to allow offshore drilling on both coasts may kill the fishery industries for good.

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