Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
GOOD GREEF!
Coral ‘skyscraper’ taller than Empire State found in Oz
A GIANT coral reef standing taller than the Empire State Building has been discovered in the Great Barrier Reef.
The detached reef, which is just under a mile wide at its base, rises 1,640ft from the sea bed to just 131ft below the surface.
That is over three times as high as the Blackpool Tower, one and a half times as much as the UK’S tallest skyscraper, The Shard, and nearly 400ft more than New York’s 1,250ft Empire State Building,
Th e re ef of f Cap e York on Australia’s north coast is the first to be discovered in over 120 years.
It was found by scientists aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s Falkor research vessel as they conducted underwater mapping of the northern Great Barrier Reef sea floor.
Dr Robin Beaman, who led the team from James Cook University in Queensland, said: “We are surprised and elated.”
Five days after their find, the team conducted a live-streamed dive using Schmidt Ocean Institute’s underwater robot Subastian to explore the new reef.
Dr Jy oti ka Virmani , chief of Schmidt Ocean Institute, said: “To find a new half-a-kilometre-tall reef in the offshore Cape York area of the well-recognised Great Barrier Reef shows how mysterious the world is just beyond our coastline.”
In st i tu t e c o - f o u n d e r Wendy Schmidt added: “This unexpected discovery affirms that we continue to find unknown structures and new species in our ocean.
“Thanks to new technologies we have the capacity to explore like never before. New oceanscapes are opening to us, revealing the ecosystems and diverse life forms that share the planet with us.” There are seven other tall detached reefs in the area, mapped since the late 1800s, including the reef at Raine Island – the world’s most important green sea turtle nesting area.
And it follows a year of underwater discoveries by the Institute.
In April, scientists discovered the longest recorded sea creature, a 148ft siphonophore – over seven times the length of a great white shark – in Ningaloo Canyon, and up to 30 new species.
In August, five undescribed species of black coral and sponges were also uncovered by the scientists who recorded Australia’s first observation of rare scorpionfish in the Coral Sea and Great Barrier Reef Marine Parks.
In February deep sea coral gardens and graveyards were found in Bremer Canyon Marine Park off the southeast coast.