Researchers Find 7-Km Living Coral Gardens Off Benin at 54 Meters
Updated
Updated · ScienceAlert · Jul 31
Researchers Find 7-Km Living Coral Gardens Off Benin at 54 Meters
3 articles · Updated · ScienceAlert · Jul 31
Summary
A 2025 expedition confirmed that coral communities off Benin are alive, overturning a 1960s assumption that formations at 52 to 56 meters were dead.
Side-scan sonar mapped two hard-bottom patches spanning about 7 kilometers, and underwater cameras plus a remotely operated drone revealed mesophotic coral gardens dominated by soft octocorals.
Video surveys recorded at least six octocoral forms, two black coral types and eight fish species, suggesting the sites are scattered rocky patches colonized by corals rather than one continuous reef.
The study checked only one of the two sonar-identified areas and collected no coral samples, leaving many species identifications provisional because they rely on footage alone.
The finding points to how little West Africa's deeper marine habitats have been studied and could aid protection as bottom-trawling and climate change pressure continental shelf ecosystems.