WORLDS LARGEST DEEP SEA REEF - MIAMI to CHARLESTON - 6.4 MILLION ACRES : THIS IS AMAZING!

DAILY MAIL SCIENCE : REEF TEEMING WITH UNKNOWN SPECIES  article my Matthew Phelan

Excerpts:  Marine scientists have found and mapped the world's largest known deep-sea coral reef: a hidden ecosystem roughly the size of Vermont teeming with new species.

The discovery was the painstaking product of 23 submersible dives and 31 multibeam sonar mapping surveys, researchers revealed, all in the service of charting the Atlantic ocean's deep-set Blake Plateau.

The plateau's deep-sea or cold-water coral ecosystem stretches nearly 311 miles from Miami, Florida to Charleston, South Carolina. And it's east-to-west width reaches passed 68 miles in some regions.

Unlike shallow ocean coral, which feeds itself in part via the photosynthesis of zooxanthellae algae, and can be harmed by the heat of climate change, this D. pertusum coral filter feeds off floating biological particles, like dead cells and microorganisms. 

And, like a pale cave fish, this cold-water coral is an eerie spectral white.

UGLY FISH MORE LIKELY TO BECOME EXTINCT BECAUSE PEOPLE LIKE COLORFUL AND FANCY ONES

THE GUARDIAN : THE REEF FISH PEOPLE FIND UGLY MORE LIKELY TO BE ENDANGERED 

Basically, people like colorful fish.

Excerpt:  "There is a need for us to make sure that our 'natural' aesthetic biases do not turn into a bias of conservation effort," said Nicolas Mouquet, a community ecologist at the University of Montpellier, and one of the lead authors of the study.  This discrepancy between aesthetic value and extinction vulnerability could have repercussions in the long run, he said.

HORSESHOE CRABS PROTECTED IN PHILIPPINES

 The story originates with National Geographic which asks for an email to log-in an read three free stories a month.  I caught it at Daily Mail, a publication based in the UK. 

DAILY MAIL SCIENCE : HORSESHOE CRABS THRIVING IN PROTECTED AREA PHILIPPINES  Beautiful photos.

Their blood is blue and harvesting them is partly in order to make Covid-19 vaccines...