Coral Sea
Research

Before 2020, only shallow parts of Coral Sea reefs had been mapped. During 2020 some of the deepest parts of the sea were mapped using an advanced multi-beam sonar system aboard a research ship owned by the Schmidt Ocean Institute, after it was diverted from a Papua New Guinea deployment because of the pandemic. A robotic submarine sent back the first ever high-resolution footage and seafloor mapping of the vital marine protected area connecting the Great Barrier Reef to the Pacific Ocean. An area of 35,554 square kilometres (13,727 sq mi) was mapped, during 14 dives by the submarine, which went down up to 1,600 metres (5,200 ft) into the depths and spent almost 100 hours in the sea. Geoscientist Jody Webster of the University of Sydney, marine geologist Robin Beaman of James Cook University led the expedition, with colleagues controlling the diving and mapping remotely. Rare marine life was identified after the images were shared with other scientists on social media, but researchers think that some of the species captured on film could be entirely new to science. Notable finds included a species of spikefish called Hollardia goslinei, previously only seen in Hawaii, and Tosanoides bennetti, first described in 2019 and never seen alive.
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