Newfoundland scientists have found an unusual type of coral garden near one of the province’s offshore islands.
Researchers at Memorial University’s Marine Institute discovered a cold-water soft coral garden northeast of Fogo Island, N.L., the institute said in a Sept. 24 publication. The coral garden is a rare find, researchers said, especially in such high densities and in such shallow waters.
“The richness and abundance of marine life within this habitat is astonishing, and I have never seen anything quite like it at such shallow water depths,” said researcher Emmeline Broad, a PhD candidate at Memorial University, in the article.
The coral, which lies at a depth of less than 200 metres, covers approximately 10,000 square metres of the sea floor and is composed of a variety of species, including anemones, sponges and basket stars, according to the institute.
The coral’s colourful surface can be seen in a video that Broad recorded using an observation system she designed and deployed.
“It’s corals as far as the eye can see,” said Bárbara Neves, a research scientist with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in St. John’s, as reported by the institute. “Soft corals of the species seen in the videos are knowingly abundant in the northwest Atlantic, but witnessing them at these densities in their natural habitat is rare.”
Newfoundland and Labrador is known to have a significant coral population in its deep waters, and has been the site of coral and sponge studies since the early 2000s.
Cold-water corals, also known as deep-sea corals, are usually found in the Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Arctic oceans, according to Fisheries and Oceans Canada. They do not need sunlight to thrive, unlike their tropical warm-water counterparts, and can live in deep, dark environments at depths greater than four kilometres.
These corals provide a unique habitat for certain types of invertebrates, fish, and other deep-sea organisms. Many cold-water coral species grow slowly and can live up to 1,000 years.
Soft corals are among the best known species of cold-water corals. They are tender and fleshy, and some are able to retract when disturbed.
There are more than 700 species of cold-water corals worldwide, according to government estimates. In Atlantic Canada, the waters off Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador harbour the greatest abundance and diversity of deep-sea corals.
Researchers from the Marine Institute plan to launch expeditions to assess the size of the recently found coral, its ecological role in the northwest Atlantic, and the organisms it supports.
