Corals discovered living in the dusk of the deep

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A trip below the surface at Ribbon Reef has revealed corals able to survive at unexpected depths.

The robotic expedition was made as part of the Seaview Survey by a team from the University of Queensland and shows that the Ribbon Reef—part of Australia's Great Barrier Reef—extends nearly twice as far down as previously thought.

"What's really cool is that these corals still have photosynthetic symbionts that supposedly still harvest the light," said Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, leader of the project. "It's interesting to know how they can handle such low light conditions—it's very deep dusk, you can barely make out much at the bottom."