Captain
Cook sailing into danger along the Great Barrier Reef;
Darwin wondering at the diversity of life and the way reefs formed and
grew; Dana envisioning the life cycle of coral reefs from first early
growth around the fringes of emerging volcanic islands to the final
submergence of atolls becoming flat-topped guyots as they sink below
the waves; the coral reefs of the Pacific are part of the lore and legend
of the scientific exploration and discovery of this most vast of oceanic
basins. But besides scientific exploration, there was also the commercial
exploration of Yankee captains searching for beche-de-mer (the sea-cucumber
or holothurians), a supposed aphrodisiac; the search for the mighty
sperm whales; and then the more benign surveying of the seas by cable
ships and government surveyors that led to the discovery of many more
coral reefs. Some of these discoveries were accidental resulting in
an unfortunate ship lending its name to its last resting place on some
remote coral reef; others, as in the case of the surveyors and cable
ships, were looking for obstructions to navigation and the best route
for laying of cables. Like the Caribbean, the growth of coral reef tourism
has been a phenomenon of the past fifty years. Join the NOAA Photo Library
in viewing some of the wonders of the coral reefs of the Pacific; visit
the links above to understand more of the science and problems of coral
reefs today …
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