Coral reef discovered off Naples, in rare find for Mediterranean

A large white coral reef containing important species and fossil traces has been discovered at a depth of more than 500 metres in the Gulf of Naples, in a rare discovery for the Mediterranean, the Italian Research Council (CNR) said on Friday.

Known as the "rainforests of the sea", coral reefs are of great interest to sea scientists as they are among the richest marine ecosystems, hosting millions of species. They play a vital role sustaining marine life, but are under threat.

The reef off Naples was found using a remotely operated submarine in the Dohrn Canyon, a deep marine valley just off the coastline of the southern Italian city, by an EU-funded sea research mission.

"Explorations (...) revealed the presence of massive structures over 2 metres wide, distributed along a vertical wall more than 80 metres high", the CNR said in a statement.

The structures are formed by deep-water hard corals, commonly referred to as "white corals" due to their lack of colour, belonging to the Lophelia pertusa and Madrepora oculata species, it added.

The reef also contains black corals, solitary corals, sponges, and other ecologically important species, as well as fossil traces of oysters and ancient corals, the CNR said.

It called them "true geological testimonies of a distant past."

Mission leader Giorgio Castellan said the finding was "exceptional for Italian seas: bioconstructions of this kind, and of such magnitude, had never been observed in the Dohrn Canyon, and are rarely seen elsewhere in our Mediterranean".

The discovery will help scientists understand the ecological role of deep coral habitats and their distribution, especially in the context of conservation and restoration efforts, he added.