Norway isn't the only place with a deepwater coral reef. Lying more than 1000 feet below the surface of the ocean, deepwater corals exist in other places, including the UK, and off the southeastern coast of the US. As opposed to shallow-water corals that create energy through photosynthesis, deepwater corals must snare passing food in the water column. For this reason, they grow even more slowly than their shallow neighbors. Hardly explored and rarely seen (obviously), the deepwater coral reefs off the US might be getting protection soon.
The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council, which sets fishing rules for federal waters in the Southeast, recently proposed protecting about 23,000 square miles of these reefs by prohibiting anchoring, bottom-fishing, and other destructive activities. The protection plan, likely to be voted on within the next year or so, could affect mounting proposals to lay natural-gas pipelines from the Bahamas to South Florida.
Why does the Council want to protect something it knows so little about? According to biologist Myra Brouwer, "The council wants to put in protection measures before anything happens." Protect it before we ruin it? Wha?
