DoomsdaysCW<p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Canada" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Canada</span></a> moves to protect <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/CoralReef" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>CoralReef</span></a> that scientists say ‘shouldn’t exist’</p><p>Discovery was made after <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/FirstNations" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>FirstNations</span></a> tipped off <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ecologists" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ecologists</span></a> about groups of fish gathering in a fjord off <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BritishColumbia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BritishColumbia</span></a></p><p>by Leyland Cecco in Toronto<br>Fri 15 Mar 2024</p><p>"On the last of nearly 20 dives, the team made a startling discovery – one that has only recently been made public.</p><p>"'When we started to see the living corals, everyone was in doubt,' says Cherisse Du Preez, head of the deep-sea ecology program at Fisheries and Oceans Canada. 'Then, when we saw the expansive fields of coral in front of us, everybody just let loose. There were a lot of pure human emotions.'</p><p>"Despite existing in absolute darkness, the lights of the submersible captured the rich pinks, yellows and purples of the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/corals" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>corals</span></a> and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/sponges" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>sponges</span></a>.</p><p>"The following year, the team mapped <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LopheliaReef" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LopheliaReef</span></a>, or <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/q%CC%93%C3%A1uc%CC%93%C3%ADw%C3%ADsuxv" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>q̓áuc̓íwísuxv</span></a>, as it has been named by the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Kitasoo" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Kitasoo</span></a> Xai’xais and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Heiltsuk" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Heiltsuk</span></a> First Nations. It is the country’s only known living coral reef.</p><p>"The discovery marks the latest in a string of instances in which Indigenous knowledge has directed researchers to areas of scientific or historic importance. More than a decade ago, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Inuk" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Inuk</span></a> oral historian Louie Kamookak compared <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Inuit" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Inuit</span></a> stories with explorers’ logbooks and journals to help locate Sir John Franklin’s lost ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. In 2014, divers located the wreck of the Erebus in a spot Kamookak suggested they search, and using his directions found the Terror two years later."</p><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/mar/15/canada-moves-to-protect-coral-reef-that-scientists-say-shouldnt-exist" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">theguardian.com/environment/20</span><span class="invisible">24/mar/15/canada-moves-to-protect-coral-reef-that-scientists-say-shouldnt-exist</span></a> </p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/IndigenousWisdom" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>IndigenousWisdom</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Environment" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Environment</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/WaterIsLife" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>WaterIsLife</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/PacificOcean" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>PacificOcean</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/DeepSeaEcosystems" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>DeepSeaEcosystems</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NoDumping" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NoDumping</span></a></p>