Scientists aboard a National Geographic research vessel recently discovered the largest known coral in the world.
The massive coral, which is 34 meters wide (112 feet) and 32 meters (105 feet) long, is visible from space. It’s a coral of the species Pavona clavus, which typically grows to just 2-3 meters (6.5 to 9.8 feet) across.
The newly discovered coral was likely able to grow so large due to a combination of favorable oceanographic conditions as well as its location in a well-protected, extremely remote area near the Solomon Islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, Eric Brown, a marine ecologist with the U.S. National Park Service who was on the expedition that discovered the coral, told Mongabay in a phone call.
However, “despite its remote location, this coral is not safe from global warming and other human threats,” Enric Sala, National Geographic explorer in residence and founder of Pristine Seas, said in a press release.
Runoff and pollution can be toxic to coral. At the same time, warming ocean conditions are leading to coral bleaching worldwide, with as much as 77% of the world’s corals exposed to bleaching-level heat in 2023.
The coral is a network of roughly a billion individual polyps. Based on its size, scientists estimate the gigantic coral is between 300 and 500 years old. Though to know the exact age, scientists will have to take a core sample of the coral and count the rings of growth, much like determining the age of a tree. In a similar way, scientists can also use old corals like this one as a source of proxy data for past oxygen levels, ocean temperatures, and storm events.
The newly discovered coral has survived centuries of changes in climatic and oceanographic conditions, leading scientists to think it might have a natural resilience to more extreme conditions and could be used to help repopulate areas where coral has been decimated by extreme heat events and coral bleaching.
“A lot of these big mega corals, as we call them, do have the reproductive capacity to repopulate areas,” Brown said. “You’ve just got this incredible genetic wealth, if you think of it that way, that can help out with repopulating other areas. Admittedly, it does lower your genetic diversity when you only have a few corals that reproduce.”
Brown said he is confident this particular coral is in no immediate danger. It’s located in a remote area of the southwest Pacific; the closest inhabited island is home to just 10 people.
“And the island inhabitants have been very adamant about setting up their particular island as a preserve, a protected conservation zone,” Brown said.
Banner image of the newly discovered coral courtesy of National Geographic.
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