(NP / 22-05-10)  A cold-water coral reef has been discovered over 800 m deep by a team of biologists of IEO and geologists assigned to the SGM, in the Cantabrian Sea. The discovery occurred during the recent campaign aboard the research vessel Vizconde de Eza, which belongs to the General Secretariat of the Sea, and in the context of the project INDEMARES.

The main goal of this project, coordinated by “Fundación Biodiversidad”, is to contribute to the protection and sustainable use of biodiversity in the Spanish seas by identifying areas of value to the Natura 2000 network.

It should be noted that this event represents a significant achievement for science because the existence of this type of deep reefs in Spanish waters was unknown so far, and there is great concern worldwide for the protection of these extraordinary ecosystems with high biodiversity indices

Coral reefs were associated for many years to warm and bright tropical waters, due to its dependence on symbiotic algae. The development of modern robots and submarines has allow to discovered recently the existence of coral reefs in many parts of the world in cold and deep waters, where many species unknown to science live and which, among other features, are responsible for stopping climate change as they are carbon sinks, reducing the presence of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

During this first campaing of the Project INDEMARES in the catchment area of the Cañón de Avilés, called INDEMARES-AVILES 0410, a multidisciplinary team of specialists in geology and biology, began the first phase of the study aimed to determine the characteristics of ecosystems and map their habitats and communities using modern technologies that enable them to obtain valuable data up to 5000 m depth.

It has been mapped an area of over 6,400 km2 and in the course of the studies there were important discoveries such as the existence of a complex and unknown tributary canyon system to the mainstream of Avilés’ one, which finally end in the abyssal plain of the Gulf of Biscay on a single tank range, located at 4,800 m depth.

One of these tributary canyons, 16.5 km long and 6.1 km at maximum width, presents singular features, both in geological characteristics and dynamics of streams, and also because a cold-waters, important and well structured coral reef has been identified on it very deep.

To determine its characteristics biological samples were taken, and dives were performed with a robot vehicle equipped with cameras and video, which led to discover that the main species structuring the coral reef Madrepora oculata and Lophelia pertusa, which increase considerably the complexity of the area, so they are accompanied by many other gorgonians, antipatharians, glass sponges, echinoderms, king crabs and fish, greatly increasing the biodiversity in relation to the rest of the bottoms studied during the campaign.