Nice coral reef!
The largest coral ever recorded has been discovered by scientists in the Solomon Islands.
At 18 feet tall, 112 feet wide and 105 feet long, the giant coral is larger than a blue whale and can be seen from space, according to a presentation at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan.
“We went to dive where the map said there was a shipwreck, and we saw something,” said Manu Saint-Félix, director of photography for National Geographic Society's Pristine Seas. told the BBC.
To my surprise, it was not a ship, but an “underwater cathedral.”
San Felix and his son Inigo dived to investigate the mass and were moved by the experience of discovering something so huge, ancient and unique.
“It's very emotional. I felt a lot of respect for something that stayed in the same place for hundreds of years and survived,” the lucky diver told the magazine.
Scientists believe that corals have been growing for 300 to 500 years.
Corals are made up of tiny individual creatures called polyps, which join together to form a hard shell when living together in colonies. The average polyp grows to about a quarter of an inch.
It functions as a single living entity. National Geographic Primeval Ocean/AFP via Getty Images
The newly discovered colony is made up of more than 1 billion coral polyps. According to National Geographic.
Most corals are dome-shaped, but the newly discovered coral mass is surprisingly flat, said lead researcher Molly Timmers.
Timmers said the discovery gave him hope for an environmentally sound future.
“The pillars of your life are still there,” she told Nat Geo.
“It gives you this awe and hope. Just seeing how big it is, how big the megacoral is, and seeing that coral survive in areas that aren't as healthy.”
Scientists believe that the habitat of this giant coral (in deeper, cooler waters than where most coral reefs are found) protects it from possible environmental disasters and allows it to expand to such a large scale. I think it's possible.
Environmental scientists say surrounding coral reefs are under siege from rising water temperatures, a byproduct of carbon emissions.
