This story was originally published in our Sept/Oct 2022 issue as "Deep Coral." Click here to subscribe to read more stories like this one.
Hopeful news about coral is hard to come by these days. That’s part of the reason images of this extraordinary reef in French Polynesia made the media rounds early this year. Located off the coast of Tahiti, its rose-shaped colonies stretch continuously across nearly 2 miles of seafloor. But at a depth around 150 feet in the South Pacific, the reef remained mostly uncharted until last year, when coral biologist Laetitia Hédouin paid it a visit after a tip from a local dive shop. The combination of its size, depth and pristine quality was startling.
“It’s like a treasure,” Hédouin says, describing the mature coral as virtually untouched by climate change. “The question is: How long will it survive?” Studies indicate that coral coverage globally shrunk ...
