00:00Corals are massive living underwater ecosystems, housing thousands or even millions of species
00:09of marine life.
00:10And now oceanic researchers have just discovered the largest single coral organism ever.
00:15So big, you can even see it from space.
00:17It's located just off the coast of the Solomon Islands.
00:21Experts say that the coral stretch is more than 100 feet long, and it's also old, dating
00:24back at least 300 years.
00:27That means it's three times the size of the previous record holder in American Samoa.
00:31Coral reefs are marine megastructures, which lay over extremely large areas, like the Great
00:35Barrier Reef, which covers a 134,000 square mile portion of the ocean floor.
00:40Reefs are an interconnected group of many coral structures, with that same one comprised
00:45of nearly 3,000 individuals.
00:46However, this new record holder is one single coral, which experts say is around the size
00:51of a massive cathedral.
00:53And finding this huge healthy coral is a good sign, especially considering nearly half
00:57of all reefs around the world are under threat due to climate change.
01:00With the director of coral reefs at the Wildlife Conservation Society telling CNN recently,
01:05this shows that there are still environmental conditions where corals can survive and thrive,
01:09even potentially through the accelerating impacts of climate change.
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