Massive reef discovered at Amazon river could be under threat already

A huge reef at the mouth of the Amazon river in South America, stretching for more than 600 miles has been discovered by scientists.

The team of researchers from Brazil and the U.S. recently published their findings in the journal Science Advances where they describe it as an important and surprising scientific discovery.

While out on the research vessel Atlantis, the team were initially studying a plume that occurs at the mouth of a river after reading a previous study from the 1970s that documented that reef fish were caught near the continental shelf.  After using specialized equipment, they came across the massive reef.

Study co-author Patricia Yager, an oceanographer at the University of Georgia says that it was a complete surprise mainly because it is rare to find coral in such muddy waters. She, together with Rodrigo Moura of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro hit the jackpot after finding spots where there could potentially be coral.

“Unbelievably, he  brought up onboard the deck just the most amazing things I’d ever seen … beautiful, colorful reef animals that I had no idea were down there”.

However, the problem now could be the threat of oil drilling as the area has been acquired to carry out and produce oil which poses a huge environmental challenge. An LA Times report claims that something needs to be done to protect the reef from potential damage and the fact that it has managed to survive in such muddy conditions needs to be researched.

“The reef described in the journal Science Advances could shed light on how these delicate organisms, which provide essential scaffolding for so much marine wildlife, might survive in less-than-ideal conditions.”

“These [exploratory] blocks will soon be producing oil in close proximity to the reefs, but the environmental baseline compiled by the companies and the Brazilian government is still incipient and largely based on sparse museum specimens. Such large-scale industrial activities present a major environmental challenge and companies should catalyze a more complete social-ecological assessment of the system before impacts become extensive and conflicts among the stakeholders escalate.”