The Thriving Coral Reef That ‘Defeated Time’ in West Africa

A 60-year mystery has been solved as researchers discover a coral ecosystem on the Benin-Togo continental shelf that is still teeming with marine life.

By: Johnny Sturgeon, Inside Climate News

Outlets: Sentient

Published: July 26, 2026

Words: 949

Last Updated: 1 week ago

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This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here.

In the 1960s, fishing surveyors off West Africa’s Benin coast hauled up heads of coral in their nets. Employed by local governments to assess fish diversity and discover potentially trawlable seabeds in the sandy-bottomed Gulf of Guinea, the researchers shrugged off the discovery at the time, burying the …

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