The reef is the most northern known coral reef in the entire Pacific Ocean
VANCOUVER — It started with a tip from the local First Nation of a "bump on the sea floor" where the fish liked to be and led to the discovery of Canada's only known live coral reef.
“You light it up and you realize you’re the first person to ever see this, beautiful pinks and purples and yellows, crevasses, mounts. And once you see past the corals, you realize that there are other animals on them," said Du Preez, who's the head of the deepsea ecology program with Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
The Fisheries Department announced last week it had closed the area on B.C.'s central coast over the coral reef to all commercial and recreational bottom-contact fisheries, including mid-water trawl. Mike Reid, fisheries manager for Heiltsuk Nation's integrated resource management department, said his nation always knew that something was supporting the fish in the area, but they didn't know what it was.
“This coral reef has valleys and mounds … the mounds provide nursery grounds. So, you have all the schools of tiny fish living and hiding from the animals hunting them.
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