Collaboration ENEA / MM: coral at 600 meters depth

04/07/14

As a result of the collaboration protocol between ENEA and the navy and in the logic of providing a useful service for the national community that goes beyond the more strictly institutional one, 2 July 2014 has resulted in a research activity at the top for identification and mapping of white coral colonies present in Ligurian waters.

This activity, carried out off Monte Rosso in favor of the marine environment research center of La Spezia, has made it possible to exploit the enormous potential of the ROV Pegaso submarine used in the Comsubin underwater operating group (GOS).

In fact, in a single day of work and thanks to the precious support of ship Leonardo of the navy, the ROV team of GOS has identified, for the first time in the Ligurian Sea, numerous colonies of white coral in three different areas at the considerable depth of 570 meters .

The discovery of these peculiar ecosystems and focal points of biodiversity in the abyss will allow the scientific community to update the national and European research programs on the white coral that, until now, had been identified only in the Ionian, in the Sicilian channel and in the southern Adriatic, and the navy to confirm the dual-use capabilities of its most valuable operational components.