There’s聽an area of the ocean known as the聽聽that is still largely unexplored 鈥� where waters are about 100 to at least 500 feet deep, and little to no light breaks through.聽Little is known about the coral reefs at that depth because it’s just beyond where conventional divers can go.
, an assistant professor in the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences,聽spent up to eight hours at a time in the cramped quarters of a submersible watercraft, studying the largest known coral reef in the mesophotic zone, located in the Hawaiian Archipelago. With a robotic arm, her research team collected specimens of coral, and captured video footage and photos of underwater life that has rarely been seen by humans.
Her work documented life along the coral reef, finding a surprising amount of coral living in areas where light levels are less than 1% of the light available at the surface.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a really unbelievable place,鈥� Padilla-Gami帽o said. 鈥淲hat is surprising is that, in theory, these corals should not be there because there鈥檚 so little light. Now we鈥檙e finally understanding how they function to be able to live there.鈥�
Read more about the mesophotic coral study in a related .