#Canada moves to protect #CoralReef that scientists say ‘shouldn’t exist’
Discovery was made after #FirstNations tipped off #ecologists about groups of fish gathering in a fjord off #BritishColumbia
by Leyland Cecco in Toronto
Fri 15 Mar 2024
"On the last of nearly 20 dives, the team made a startling discovery – one that has only recently been made public.
"'When we started to see the living corals, everyone was in doubt,' says Cherisse Du Preez, head of the deep-sea ecology program at Fisheries and Oceans Canada. 'Then, when we saw the expansive fields of coral in front of us, everybody just let loose. There were a lot of pure human emotions.'
"Despite existing in absolute darkness, the lights of the submersible captured the rich pinks, yellows and purples of the #corals and #sponges.
"The following year, the team mapped #LopheliaReef, or #q̓áuc̓íwísuxv, as it has been named by the #Kitasoo Xai’xais and #Heiltsuk First Nations. It is the country’s only known living coral reef.
"The discovery marks the latest in a string of instances in which Indigenous knowledge has directed researchers to areas of scientific or historic importance. More than a decade ago, #Inuk oral historian Louie Kamookak compared #Inuit stories with explorers’ logbooks and journals to help locate Sir John Franklin’s lost ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. In 2014, divers located the wreck of the Erebus in a spot Kamookak suggested they search, and using his directions found the Terror two years later."