A coral reef long presumed dead has been rediscovered \u201cteeming with life\u201d off the coast of West Africa.<\/p>\n
Researchers used sonar and underwater drones to find the thriving ecosystem deep below the surface of the Gulf of Guinea.<\/p>\n
Surveys conducted in the 1960s, focused on identifying promising fishing areas, flagged a possible deep-water coral reef.<\/p>\n
But scientists at the time assumed it must be dead<\/a>.<\/p>\n Scientists first conducted a survey of a coral reef off the coast of West Africa in the 1960s, but believed it was dead. Now, researchers have found there\u2019s actually life bubbling beneath the surface. G\u00e9rard Zinzindohou\u00e9 \/ SWNS<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The amazing discovery was described in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lead author G\u00e9rard Zinzindohou\u00e9 said: \u201cIt was not an easy field campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a mix of long days at sea, technical problems, and a lot of uncertainty.<\/p>\n \u201cBut then we saw structures on the sonar that looked like they could be reef signatures, which gave us hope that we were close.<\/p>\n G\u00e9rard Zinzindohou\u00e9 recalled that the team spent \u201clong days at sea\u201d and used an underwater drone to discover it is a mesophotic coral ecosystem. G\u00e9rard Zinzindohou\u00e9 \/ SWNS<\/p>\n \u201cNext, we surveyed the structures with an underwater drone and the Deep Sea Camera System.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was a big moment for us, because suddenly we could actually see the seafloor.<\/p>\n \u201cI still remember seeing those first images.<\/p>\n \u201cIt 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<\/p>\n The historical surveys had identified a possible reef more than 50 meters (164 feet) beneath the surface and declared that it was probably dead.<\/p>\n Zinzindohou\u00e9 and his colleagues at the Institute of Halieutic and Oceanographic Research in Cotonou, Benin, reasoned that it could have been a mesophotic coral ecosystem.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cA mesophotic coral ecosystem lives deeper than the usual shallow coral reefs, in zones where light is much more limited.<\/p>\n \u201cUnlike typical shallow reefs, it does not always form a single continuous reef structure.<\/p>\n \u201cInstead, it can appear as patchy or scattered coral communities spread across the seafloor.\u201d<\/p>\n Using the historical surveys as a guide, the research team surveyed seven miles of seabed with sonar.<\/p>\n It revealed two signals which could represent reefs.<\/p>\n To investigate the most promising areas, the team used an underwater drone and the Deep Sea Camera System, like underwater trail cameras.<\/p>\n The coral reef had eight species of fish, including golden African snappers, blackbar soldierfish, Guinean angelfish, West African goatfish, and more. G\u00e9rard Zinzindohou\u00e9 \/ SWNS<\/p>\n The footage showed a seemingly healthy reef, with eight different types of coral and eight species of fish sheltering and feeding around the corals.<\/p>\n The fish included golden African snappers, blackbar soldierfish, Guinean angelfish, West African goatfish, the Monrovia doctorfish, three-banded butterflyfish, and two species of damselfish.<\/p>\n