Coral reefs are normally associated with tropical waters, but maritime researchers have found unique forests of it in deep and cold seas off the northern Norwegian coast. Efforts are being made to protect it.
The coral is growing along the entire coast, just a few millimetres a year, and when it dies, it turns to stone and new coral grows nearby.
Local fishermen have known about it for years, because their trawlers often pull some of it up.
Over the past few years, researchers have been diving to the deep in mini-subs to chart it and photograph it. They’ve found one reef after another, and want to make sure that oil exploration efforts don’t damage it.
“The coral is gorgeous and some of the most special that Norwegian nature has to offer,” Jan Helge Foss
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