Federal authority has proposed protection measures of the coral reefs deep beneath the crystalline blue surface of the Atlantic Ocean off the southeastern United States. It is said that the reef is a 23,000-square-mile area stretching from North Carolina to Florida is just part of that entire reef tract now being proposed for protection from potential damage by deep-sea commercial fishing and energy exploration. The vast stretch of reef is said to have been untouched because of its largely unreachable depths, providing scientists with a unique opportunity to protect an ecosystem before it’s destroyed.
Steve Ross of the Center for Marine Science at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, told that science is trying to catch up with exploitation. He also said that studying these deep-sea environments would result in finding some new species of fish, crab and corals that could lead to scientific and medical discoveries. Environmentalists say crab pots and bottom trawling for shrimp are the most immediate threats.
Margot Stiles, a marine scientist for Oceana, an international environmental advocacy group, said other deep-water reefs off the United States have been severely damaged by trawlers. He added that this particular reef is to the deep sea what the Great Barrier Reef is for the world. The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council is pushing the proposal to protect the region, about the size of West Virginia, in depths down to 2,500 feet and below, creating the largest deep-water coral-protected area off the Atlantic coast.
