A new multiple-year mapping of the sea floor coordinated by NOAA has found the largest known deep-sea coral reef habitat in the world.
The coral reef covers 6.4 million acres, larger than the state of Vermont, on the sea floor of the Blake Plateau, about 100 miles off the southeast coast of the U.S. With a depth of 2,600 to 3,200 feet, the Blake Plateau stretches from Miami up to Charleston. It is bordered on the east by the Blake Escarpment, which drops down to 16,000 feet.
The new study, published in the journal Geomatics, says scientists identified 83,908 individual coral mounts in the area, the first estimate of the number of coral mounts ever made there. Scientists analyzed data from 23 submersible dives, documenting the scale of the coral province. They said the Blake Plateau is made up of almost continuous coral mount features measuring 310 miles long and 68 miles wide. A core area, called “Million Mounds,” is filled with high-density coral mounts and is 158 miles long and 26 miles wide.
These cold-water corals grow in the deep ocean where there is no sunlight. They survive by feeding on biological particles. They are not fully understood, but we do know that they create structures that provide food, shelter and a nursery habitat to other invertebrates and fish.
“For years we thought much of the Blake Plateau was sparsely inhabited soft sediment, but after more than ten years of systematic mapping and exploration, we have revealed one of the largest deep-sea coral reef habitats found anywhere in the world,” said Kasey Cantwell, operations chief for NOAA Ocean Exploration. “Past studies have highlighted some coral in the region, particularly closer to the coast and in shallower waters, but until we had a complete map of the region, we didn’t know how extensive this habitat was, or how many of these coral mounds were connected.”
Read more at https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/news/oer-updates/2024/million-mounds-news.html and see the video below:
