Deep-water reefs off the southeastern U.S.: recent discoveries and research

Some of the most spectacular corals found off the southeastern U.S. were discovered as recently as the 1970s in an unexpected place—the deep waters along the edge of the continental shelf. These banks of Oculina corals extend for 167 km along the eastern Florida shelf. Unfortunately, even as they were being discovered by scientists, the Oculina banks had already been damaged by trawl-fishing activity. Parts of the reef have been protected since 1984, and the protected area was expanded in 2000, but the story of the Oculina banks’ discovery and their damage by fishing activity is all too typical of the deep-water coral ecosystems that live and die, almost entirely unknown to the average person, in the deep waters off of some of the most populated and well explored coastlines in the world.