{"id":558493,"date":"2026-07-20T05:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T05:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/558493\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T05:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T05:12:09","slug":"underwater-drones-discover-coral-reefs-off-benin-long-presumed-dead-teeming-with-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/558493\/","title":{"rendered":"Underwater drones discover coral reefs off Benin, long presumed dead, teeming with life"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Image<\/p>\n

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image:\u00a0<\/p>\n

An image of the rediscovered coral reef by G\u00e9rard Zinzindohou\u00e9.\u00a0<\/p>\n

view more\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Credit: G\u00e9rard Zinzindohou\u00e9<\/p>\n

A missing-presumed-dead coral reef has been found alive and well off the coast of Benin. 1960s surveys, focused on identifying promising fishing areas, flagged a possible deep-water coral reef but assumed it must be dead. Now, using a modern sonar survey and the Deep Sea Camera System provided by the National Geographic Exploration Technology Lab, scientists have found an apparently healthy reef. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not an easy field campaign,\u201d said G\u00e9rard Zinzindohou\u00e9 of the Institut de Recherches Halieutiques et Oc\u00e9anologiques du B\u00e9nin, lead author of the article in Frontiers in Marine Science. \u201cIt was a mix of long days at sea, technical problems, and a lot of uncertainty. But then we saw structures on the sonar that looked like they could be reef signatures, which gave us hope that we were close. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNext, we surveyed the structures with an underwater drone and the Deep Sea Camera System. That was a big moment for us, because suddenly we could actually see the seafloor. I still remember seeing those first images. It was a mix of excitement and disbelief, because after all this time thinking about this reef, suddenly there was something real in front of us.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

The unexpected survivor\u00a0<\/p>\n

The historical surveys had identified a possible reef more than 50 meters beneath the surface and declared that it was probably dead. Zinzindohou\u00e9 and his colleagues reasoned that it could have been a mesophotic coral ecosystem. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA mesophotic coral ecosystem lives deeper than the usual shallow coral reefs, in zones where light is much more limited,\u201d explained Zinzindohou\u00e9. \u201cUnlike typical shallow reefs, it does not always form a single continuous reef structure. Instead, it can appear as patchy or scattered coral communities spread across the seafloor.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Using the historical surveys as a guide, the scientists surveyed 11.5 kilometers of seabed with sonar. This revealed two signals which could represent reefs. To investigate the most promising areas, the team used an underwater drone and the Deep Sea Camera System, like underwater trail cameras. The footage showed a seemingly healthy reef, with eight different types of coral and eight species of fish sheltering and feeding around the corals: golden African snappers, blackbar soldierfish, Guinean angelfish, West African goatfish, the Monrovia doctorfish, three-banded butterflyfish, and two species of damselfish. \u00a0<\/p>\n

This reef doesn\u2019t seem to be a continuous coral barrier, but patches of coral occupying rocky areas suitable for their growth. However, it\u2019s possible that further surveys will identify more reefs. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTo our knowledge, this is the first confirmed record of a living mesophotic coral ecosystem on the Gulf of Guinea continental shelf,\u201d said Zinzindohou\u00e9. \u201cHowever, I think what we found is probably not an exception. It is more likely a reflection of how little we still know about coastal regions in West Africa and elsewhere. If we were able to find this reef again after 60 years, how many others are still undocumented or simply forgotten? So yes, I do believe there are likely more coral systems out there that we have not documented yet. But we should not assume they are everywhere. Each discovery needs to be confirmed. Without going back into the field, we are really just guessing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reading the archive\u00a0<\/p>\n

The scientists point out that they haven\u2019t been able to sample the corals directly yet, which means that the species identifications still need to be confirmed. It\u2019s also impossible to know, without more data, if the corals were dead in the 1960s and have since recovered. Much more research will be needed to learn about this reef and other possible reefs nearby.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is still an initial exploration,\u201d said Zinzindohou\u00e9. \u201cThe historical reports suggested that this could be a continuous coral reef barrier extending roughly 40 kilometers parallel to the coast. We only surveyed a small section of this area and we had a limited number of visual transects. If I had all the grant money in the world, the first thing I would do is return to the site with a proper scientific diving and sampling program. These are ecosystems that are still poorly known in this part of the world, and every additional piece of information matters. \u00a0<\/p>\n

For me, the most exciting part is about understanding the reef\u2019s history, and what it can tell us about how the ocean in this region has changed over time. It feels like we have only just started to read an archive that has been there for a very long time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Journal<\/p>\n

Frontiers in Marine Science<\/p>\n

Method of Research<\/p>\n

Observational study<\/p>\n

Subject of Research<\/p>\n

Not applicable<\/p>\n

Article Title<\/p>\n

First evidence of live mesophotic coral reefs on the Benin continental shelf<\/p>\n

Article Publication Date<\/p>\n

20-Jul-2026<\/p>\n

COI Statement<\/p>\n

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"image:\u00a0 An image of the rediscovered coral reef by G\u00e9rard Zinzindohou\u00e9.\u00a0 view more\u00a0 Credit: G\u00e9rard Zinzindohou\u00e9 A missing-presumed-dead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,82],"class_list":["post-558493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}