The "A Deep-Sea Reef Was Recently Found In The Atlantic Ocean" Story

It was an ordinary day.  I recently read that the world's largest deep-sea coral reef has been discovered off the East Coast of the United States.  It is a massive 6.4 million acre seascape that stretches from Miami, Florida to Charleston, South Carolina according to the national Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Ocean Exploration.  Size wise...that would make it larger than the state of Vermont.  The discovery disproves a long-held belief that the Blake Plateau in the Atlantic might be a dead zone.  Instead, scientists found a "stunning" ecosystem populated by "dense thickets of reef-building coral."  For years it was thought that much of the Blake Plateau was sparsely inhabited, soft sediment, according to NOAA Ocean Exploration Operations Chief Kasey Cantrell.  He said that past studies have highlighted some coral in the region, particularly closer to the coast and in shallower waters, but until we had a complete map of the region, we didn't know how extensive this habitat was, nor how many of these coral mounds were connected.  The reef's borders are between 35 and 75 miles off the coastline; beginning southeast of Miami and moving north to Charleston, South Carolina.  One spot, nicknamed "Million Mounds," by scientists, accounts for the largest part of the reef.  It is made up primarily of "a stony coral" commonly found at depths of 656 to 3,280 feet, were temperatures average about 39 degrees.  "Cold-water corals such as these grow in the deep ocean where there is no sunlight and survive by filter-feeding biological particles," according to scientists.  While they are known to be important ecosystem engineers, creating structures that provide shelter, food, and nursery habitat to other invertebrates and fish, these corals remain poorly understood.  Hints of a massive reef were found in 2019, but scientists waited until a multiagency effort had mapped the reef before announcing the discovery.  Data from more that 30 multibeam sonar mapping surveys, as well as 23 submersible dives, was combined to create a nearly complete map.  In the process, the team "identified 83,908 individual coral mound peak features," according to the news release.  "The study documents the massive scale of the coral province, an area composed of nearly continuous coral mound features that span up to 310 miles long and 68 miles wide."  A "core area" has high-density mounds up to 158 miles long and 26 miles wide.  In addition to NOAA Ocean Exploration, the multiyear exploration campaign included the Ocean Exploration Trust, the University of New Hampshire, the Burear of "Ocean Energy Management, Temple University and the U.S. Geological Survey.  "This strategic multiyear and multi agency effort to systematically map and characterize the stunning coral ecosystem...is a perfect example of what we can accomplish when we pool resources," according to Derek Sowers, lead author of the study and Mapping Operations Manager for the Ocean Exploration Trust. If you have ever been part of a dive that was searching for coral, it is a remarkable expedition.  My wife and I, along with long-time friends Jere and Sue,  have been lucky enough to visit many islands in the Caribbean Sea and to dive off their coastlines, looking for coral reefs and whatever inhabits those reefs.  It is so much fun and at times scary!  And when you do sight a reef that is covered with fish and creatures that look like they are from another universe, it makes your day a real success!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.