
Living deep-sea coral garden found off Benin, challenging decades-old reef death assumptions
Scientists using side-scan sonar and deep-sea cameras off Benin, West Africa, detected a living mesophotic coral garden about 54 meters deep, overturning decades of belief that this reef system was dead; the site hosts six octocorals, two black corals, and at least eight reef fish species with no observed bleaching, marking the first confirmed mesophotic reef on the Gulf of Guinea shelf. Researchers plan to collect samples to assess health and resilience amid climate-driven warming.












