The Mexican Sea reveals extraordinary treasures, such as the bamboo coral garden discovered by scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) showing images never seen before.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himThe Mexican Sea reveals extraordinary treasures, such as the bamboo coral garden discovered by scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) showing images never seen before.
Il coral bamboo (Isididae) is a particular and rare variety of coral, its typical colonies resemble forests of trees up to 25 centimeters high, fixed to the rocks of the seabed, up to two hundred meters deep. It is called so precisely because it resembles a bamboo, but it is a very dense and compact whitish root.
Bamboo coral forests had been found near Taiwan, but never in the Gulf of Mexico near the west coast of Florida. The bed extends over two kilometers and was discovered by researchers during a 23-day expedition aboard the only government-funded ship.
As stated in the team's scientific article:
“NOAA estimates that bamboo coral structures could be nearly a thousand years old. It is evident that there are a series of conditions that allow it to grow. Bamboo corals usually grow in the form of deep-water forests and feed on small aquatic organisms ”.
Thanks to the Okeanos Explorer expedition, scientists are unearthing underwater treasures gifted by nature. Corals and sponges are more common on rocks than in sedimentary areas.
During the dive, the video shows a terrain where there could be all the conditions to create a microhabitat suitable for denser colonies of bamboo coral.
Look how wonderful:
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- Pacific coral discolored: all the fault of climate change
Dominella Trunfio
Photo: NOAA
