A team of marine scientists and environment experts working for the Red Sea Development Company found a massive and unique coral reef south of Al-Waqadi Island off of Saudi Arabia’s coastline, Arab News and the Saudi Press Agency report.
The coral colony is 600 years old and measures more than 10 meters in height. It is the first-of-its-kind in the Red Sea region, according to the reports.
Coral reefs are living creatures. They are formed when the initial coral polyp adheres to a rock on the seabed. Its lower part is made up of a solid limestone skeleton and it begins to divide itself into thousands of cloned organisms while staying connected to create a colony that works as one organism.
The colony will enable scientists to read the rings of coral reefs and learn more about the ocean temperature in previous years, and its chemical composition at the time.
Climate change is considered the biggest threat to the world’s coral reefs, causing mass bleaching, among other things.
Al-Waqadi island is one of many being either developed or preserved as part of the Kingdom’s tourism plans, which seek to drive economic diversification in Saudi Arabia.
