Recovering
Plate coral
Leptoseris hawaiiensis
Flattens its skeleton to catch scattered blue light.
Zone 01 · Overview
Below the reach of recreational diving, mesophotic reefs live on the last one percent of surface light. Our teams survey them with rebreathers and low-lux photogrammetry, mapping colony growth across a decade so we can tell recovery from a good season.
Low-light coral communities that shelter species long thought lost from shallow water.
Associated species
Stable
Twilight anthias
Pseudanthias ventralis
Shoals hang above ledges at 90 m, feeding on drifting plankton.
Watch
Black coral
Antipathes griggi
Slow-growing colonies, some older than the institute itself.
Network updates
12 AugNode M3Photogrammetry pass complete — 4 % new plate cover since spring.
02 AugNode M5Temperature logger swapped; sensor drift corrected in archive.
21 JulNode M1Bleaching alert cleared after nine days of cooler upwelling.
Continue the descent
