Scientists map one of world's largest known coral colonies

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Scientists have mapped a 1.56 km long coral colony along the outer reef of Australia s remote Cocos (Keeling) Islands, making it ...

Sydney, Australia: Scientists have mapped a 1.56-km-long coral colony along the outer reef of Australia's remote Cocos (Keeling) Islands, making it one of the largest known coral colonies ever recorded.

The rose coral (Pachyseris) colony occupies the outer reef slope between depths of 14 and 65 meters, with an average width of 36.5 meters, covering an area of about 56,940 square meters, according to a statement released Friday by Australia's Queensland Museum.

Working with researchers from the Queensland Museum and James Cook University, lead researcher Jean-Paul Adrian Hobbs from Adelaide University in Australia spent months mapping the coral, using a positioning system to mark his progress between dives when he ran out of air before reaching its end. It took 12 dives to finally map the full extent of the colony, the statement said.

A local dive operator first spotted extensive areas of…

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