A group of Marine Institute researchers were “astonished” this summer to find a colourful bed of coral on the ocean floor off Newfoundland stretching out as far as the eye could see.
Emmeline Broad was operating the SubC imaging camera at the time and says they had no expectations whatsoever to make the previously-unknown discovery.
The group was exploring the Funk Island Deep marine refuge when the colourful coral bed was found in June.
“We were pretty astonished,” says Broad. “There were three of us watching the footage to begin with, and we were just speechless staring at each other, like ‘what have we just found?'”
The discovery lies in a protected marine area, which is “a bit of a relief” according to Broad, but they’re still trying to gain understanding as to why no one knew it was there.
She suspects it’s because the coral bed is in an area of densely packed subsea hills, which would have been difficult to fish because it would have caused damage and loss of gear.