The world’s largest coral was discovered in the South Pacific

Off the coast of the Solomon Islands lurks a centuries-old creature so big it can be seen from space.

Discovered in October by the National Geographic Society’s Pristine Seas team, it is the largest free-standing coral in the world. Coming in at around 34 meters wide, 32 meters long and 6 meters tall, the giant coral is taller than the average blue whale. It also dwarfs the world’s other largest known coral, a 22-meter-wide coral in American Samoa known as Big Momma.

“Whereas Big Momma looked like a huge scoop of ice cream dumped on the reef, this newly discovered coral is like the ice cream started to melt, spreading forever across the seabed,” said Molly Timmers, a marine ecologist at Pristina Seas. . team, in a statement.

The prime example is a shoulder blade coral—so named for the scapula-like ridges that make up its body—called Pavona clavus. The team estimates that it was built by nearly a billion coral polyps, tiny creatures that live together and build rigid skeletons made of calcium carbonate (SN: 10/30/24).

Such living structures provide essential habitat for many marine species, said coral scientist Eric Brown of the Pristina Seas team, during a press conference. “Coral reef ecosystems make up only about 0.2 percent of the ocean’s surface, yet they contain over 25 percent of the planet’s marine species.”

Strangely, underwater cinematographer Manu San Félix came across the giant coral the night before the Prishtina Sea team had planned to leave the location. “In the first second, I knew I was looking at something unique,” he said. “I was telling myself ‘no, no, it’s not that big’, because I [didn’t] want to [cause] too much excitement before it was measured.”

After measuring the coral’s record dimensions and reviewing studies of the species’ growth rate, the team estimated it to be 300 to 500 years old. This longevity can be a boon to researchers, as the composition of a coral skeleton records information about its environmental conditions.

While the newly found coral appears healthy, coral reefs around the world face many threats, from ocean acidification to pollution to coral bleaching (SN: 1/9/15; SN: 9/7/22; SN: 29.4.24). According to Brown, the discovery is a reminder that “it’s important for us to do everything we can to protect these environments that are small but powerful.”