Scientists Find A New Black Coral ‘Hidden In Plain Sight’ In The Pacific… Scientists say there are still many undiscovered species in the Pacific and caution against moving forward with deep sea mining activities.
A new species of black coral has been identified in the Pacific, including in an area south of Hawaii that’s being considered for deep-sea mining, according to a paper published this week.
The study by researchers at Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Smithsonian Institution and Conservation International analyzed coral samples at several museums worldwide, including the Bernice P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu.
The researchers concluded that a species had previously been mischaracterized as another type of coral but was in fact its own separate species. They named it B. pseudoalternata.
