Amid the bleak forecasts about the state of the Great Barrier Reef there's been a heartening discovery nearby. Queensland researchers have discovered an abundance of Sealife in the deep waters of the coral sea.
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00:00 In the twilight middle zone of the remote coral sea, researchers have found an extraordinary
00:06 thriving community.
00:08 Coral cover's gone down dramatically in the shallows, but when we put the ROV down into
00:12 the deeper areas, we're picking up areas of 80, 90, close to 100% coral cover down as
00:17 deep as 100 metres.
00:18 The new study is looking into the effects of climate change and human impacts on the
00:22 reef.
00:23 James Cook University researchers explored 15 sites using remote operated vehicles.
00:29 We send the robot down to see what we can find and hopefully keep everything nice and
00:34 stable to conduct a steady survey.
00:37 They found 68 species of fish not previously known to live at that depth.
00:42 Researchers hope the discovery will fill some gaps in knowledge about the mysterious mesophotic
00:46 reef, the middle zone between shallow and deep reef layers.
00:51 Hopefully we can continue that through time and just see, you know, are they being impacted
00:55 by any disturbances or it is only the shallow areas and what sort of depth do we see refuge
01:01 from some of these disturbances?
01:03 Giving us a glimpse of the underwater world.
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