“This expedition suggests that these areas should be incorporated into MPAs [Marine Protection Areas]…that they are very important,” says Tom Bridge, doctoral student on the AG-sponsored expedition.

Scientists gather around a computer monitor to survey the data collected from beneath the ocean.

The discovery of what was previously only known as a shallow coral in the mesophotic zone suggests that deep corals may perhaps seed the shallow zones after a devastating event. Therefore, mesophotic zones may play an important role in shallow reef recovery by acting as refugia and providing larvae that can then repopulate shallower coral ecosystems after damage.

“Nobody has ever really looked in the Coral Sea”, doctoral student Tom Bridge says. Scientists have “very little idea of what is there.” The race is on to protect and simultaneously explore the mesophotic (30-150m) depths of the pristine Coral Sea.

The discovery of what was previously only known as a shallow coral (Echinomorpha nishihirai), in the mesophotic zone suggests that deep corals may perhaps seed the shallow zones after a devastating event.

Scientists used this ROV (remotely operated vehicle) to collect specimens beyond diving depths (down to 150m). This was the first time anyone had explored these regions of the Coral Sea.

Doctoral student Tom Bridge, researcher Pim Bongaerts, and a team from the University of Queensland, James Cook University and the Queensland Museum, sponsored by the AG Society, explored the unmapped depths around atolls in the Coral Sea, beyond the Great Barrier Reef.

A researcher uses a portable camera to survey coral in the mesophotic zone – a region 30m-15m below the surface of the water.

An AG-sponsored expedition has discovered new corals and a pygmy seahorse at previously unrecorded depths.

The pygmy seahorse (Hippocampus denise), just 13mm long, is endemic to the Coral Triangle, the waters adjacent to Coral Sea in the Indo-West Pacific. This is the first time it has been found in Australian waters.

In deeper areas of the sea, these large fans are common and diverse. This was the first time that depths down to 150m in the Coral Sea were explored by scientists.