A record-breaking coral has been found in the southwest Pacific Ocean in what has been described as “a rare and important discovery” and “the ultimate dream of every scientist and explorer”.
Scientists from National Geographic’s Pristine Seas team made the find during a recent expedition to the Solomon Islands, an island nation in Melanesia, to the northeast of Australia. Visible from space, at 34 metres wide, 32 metres long and 5.5 metres high, with a circumference of 183 metres, the coral, previously unknown to Solomon Islanders, knocks the previous record-holding structure, located in American Samoa, into second place.
“A bustling underwater city”
The Soloman coral is a vast organism made up of tiny individual “polyp” creatures. Unlike a reef, which is a network of colonies, this is one individual colony, thought to be around 300 years old.
“Just when we think there is nothing left to discover on planet earth, we find a massive coral made of nearly one billion little polyps, pulsing with life and colour,” said Enric Sala, National Geographic Explorer in Residence and founder of Pristine Seas.
Of the Pavona clavus species, the coral appears mostly brown and gold with some other patterning. Its intricate finger-like structures form “a bustling underwater city”, according to Ronnie Posala, Fisheries officer, Solomon Islands Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources (MFMR). However, it is not only the habitat offered to an array of other creatures, but the existence of such a healthy coral itself and its implications for other threatened coral colonies elsewhere, that has excited the marine world.
“A beacon of hope” and a genetic encyclopedia
“Large adult coral colonies like this contribute significantly to the recovery of coral reef ecosystems due to their high reproductive potential,” remarked Eric Brown, coral scientist for the Pristine Seas expedition to the Solomon Islands. “While the nearby shallow reefs were degraded due to warmer seas, witnessing this large healthy coral oasis in slightly deeper waters is a beacon of hope.”
National Geographic’s release notes that only 8.4% of the ocean is protected to some degree, meaning there is an ongoing risk of bleaching and dieback to corals, which are important carbon-sinks and support a quarter of all marine life on the planet. Further studies of the new specimen could reveal a cache of information that will help us conserve other corals.
“The genetic code of these simple polyps is an enormous encyclopedia that has written how to survive multiple climatic conditions, and until now it does so in the face of ocean warming,” said San Félix, the diver who first noticed the coral. He told the BBC, that the sight was like a “cathedral underwater” and the experience was “very emotional. I felt this huge respect for something that’s stayed in one place and survived for hundreds of years.”
