News, Travel & Events

Staff · Issue 142, Jan/Feb 2025 · pp. 6–15

News, Travel & Events Scientists discover world’s largest coral—so big it can be seen from space Divers from National Geographic Pristine Seas measure the world’s largest coral colony in the Solomon Islands. www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/world-largest-coral-colony-discovery www.visitsolomons.com.sb From the surface, it looked like a shipwreck, long forgotten on the seabed. But when cinematographer Manu San Félix dove down to take a closer look, he was amazed to find a huge, sprawling coral. That was the moment the National Geographic Society’s Pristine Seas team says they discovered the world’s largest coral colony during an October 2024 expedition in Solomon Islands, an archipelago in the southwest Pacific Ocean. At 112 by 105 feet, this mega coral is longer than a blue whale, Earth’s largest animal. It is so enormous that it can be seen from space—yet it was long hidde…