Scientists find coral reef off Carolina coast

A discovery was made this week 160 miles off the coast of Charleston, S.C. It is an enormous series of coral reefs that, combined, are nearly the length of Delaware. Scientists say it may have been growing on the ocean floor for as long as modern humans have been on the planet.

“This finding changes where we thought corals could exist off the East Coast,” Erik Cordes, a Temple University biology professor and the expedition’s chief scientist, told the Washington Post. “And the function of the reefs, in terms of recycling nutrients, is critical to fuel surface productivity and the fisheries we rely on.”

The find was made as part of DEEP SEARCH, a five-year project to explore the sea off the coast of Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, according to its website, “including deepwater coral reefs and mounts, massive submarine canyons, and cold-seep communities that rely on the energy from natural gas rather than sunlight to fuel productivity.”

The discovery comes as the Trump administration has proposed rolling back bans on ocean drilling. The move would reinstate offshore drilling leases, and has been publicly opposed by more than 140 municipalities.

In January, the Trump administration unveiled a plan that would permit companies to drill in waters on the U.S. continental shelf, including protected areas of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. The Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management has identified 47 potential areas where industry companies can buy leases between 2019-24, when the proposed period would begin and end, according to the Washington Post’s Darryl Fears.

Cordes told the Post that the reef appears to be one of those areas.

“The goal of this whole project is to discover new, fragile habitats and make them priorities for BOEM’s management plan for the area in case it is opened up to drilling,” he said. “It is critical that we know where these places are, or they could be drilling right on top of a coral reef that no one knew was there.”