When members of the project’s scientific team spotted the immense coral in the Tres Hermanas group of islands, in the southwest of the Pacific Ocean, they thought it was the remains of a shipwreck or a large rock due to its size. The surprise came when they found that they were contemplating the “largest known coral in the world.” It is an autonomous specimen, of the species Peacock Nail ― coral― that with its 34 meters wide and 32 meters long dwarfs the blue whale, the largest animal on the Planet.
The coral “that can be seen from space” is made up of tiny polyps that come from larvae that, after settling on the seabed, have multiplied into millions of genetically identical polyps over about 300 years,” the researchers point out. Step by step they have “invaluable information on the ocean conditions of past centuries, including global warming,” they explain. In this kind of encyclopedic library, fish, shrimp, crabs and other invertebrates live, take refuge and reproduce.
The discovery is great news in the midst of , which although only represent about 0.2% of the ocean area, contain more than 25% of the planet’s marine species. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported the fourth episode of global coral bleaching and the second in the last 10 years due to high ocean temperatures. This phenomenon occurs when stressed corals expel the algae that are their food source and give them color. If this situation continues, the coral can die.
For this reason, “the discovery is an important reminder that the seas must be protected and also shows that in this era in which every square centimeter of the earth can be observed with satellites and drones, the sea continues to hold mysteries beneath the surface. like this,” Enric Sala, National Geographic explorer and founder of Pristine Seas, comments in a statement. At the time of the coral’s discovery, 18 scientists and filmmakers from the project team were on an expedition to the Solomon Islands to study the health of the ocean there.
“It’s like finding the tallest tree in the world,” describes Sala, at a time when efforts must be multiplied to comply with the agreement reached by governments at the Summit on Biological Diversity in Canada to protect 30% of oceans in 2030. “But currently, only 8% of the oceans have some type of figure that guarantees their safety, so we need to quadruple that figure in six years,” he adds. The Solomon Islands are a treasure trove of marine biodiversity, with the second largest variety of corals (including more than 490 known species, both hard and soft). It is also home to one of the most active underwater volcanoes in the world, Kavachi.
Endangered
The poor situation of corals is reflected in the latest update made by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) of its Red List. evaluated are threatened, while in 2008, the date of the previous evaluation, a third of the species were in danger. The IUCN has presented these results at the COP29 climate summit, which is being held in Azerbaijan.
For example, staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) and the elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) are two critically endangered species in the Caribbean that have experienced significant declines due to increased warming, water pollution, hurricanes, and the serious effects of coral diseases.
Climate change is the main threat to reef-building coral species, maintains the organization, which has taken into account the most recent data from the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN). It has also incorporated current and future threats into its assessment, such as the expected increase in warming phenomena and major bleaching episodes, as well as other threats such as pollution, agricultural runoff, diseases and unsustainable fishing.
