Pristine coral reef unblemished by warming oceans discovered off Tahiti

The reef, which is more than 30 meters deep, probably took around 25 years to develop. Some of the rose-shaped corals are over 2 meters in diameter.

“It was magical to see beautiful giant pink corals stretching as far as the eye can see. It was like a work of art,” said French photographer Alexis Rosenfeld, who led the team of international divers who made the discovery.

Most of the world’s known coral reefs are found in warmer waters at depths of up to 25 meters, UNESCO said. The reef off Tahiti is in the “twilight zone” 30 to 120 meters below the surface where there is still enough light for the coral to grow and reproduce.

Bleaching is a stress response from overheated corals during heat waves in which they lose color, and many struggle to survive. Perhaps the most famous – Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, a World Heritage-listed wonder – has suffered severe bleaching of around 80% of its corals since 2016.

The discovery off Tahiti suggests there could be many more large, unknown reefs in our oceans, given that only around 20% of the entire seabed is mapped, UNESCO scientists say.

This photo shows rose-shaped corals in the waters off Tahiti in French Polynesia in December 2021. (Alexis Rosenfeld/@alexis.rosenfeld via AP)

“It also raises questions about how coral reefs are becoming more resilient to climate change,” said Julian Barbiere, marine policy officer at UNESCO. Reuters. More of the ocean floor needs to be mapped to better protect marine biodiversity, Barbiere said. “We know more about the surface of the moon or the surface of Mars than we know about the deepest part of the ocean.”