Ascension Islands: Deep Sea

Designating Ascension’s MPA is one way of safeguarding its unique marine biodiversity. But in order to protect this environment properly, we must understand the habitats and organisms which live here and determine how these ecosystems may be coping with changes in the marine environment.

The average depth of Ascension's MPA is 3500 metres and much of it remains unexplored. In November 2022, the Royal Research Ship Discovery arrived in Ascension's waters after travelling almost four and a half thousand miles from the UK. The scientists onboard were joined by Ascension’s fisheries department to undertake specialised surveys to explore the deepest parts of Ascension’s waters.

The research team discovered fascinating marine invertebrates on the deep-sea floor- vast coral gardens brimming with black coral lovingly named the ‘curly fry coral’ to reflect their bright orange colour, curly nature. These corals were found in mixed communities of sponges, corals, crabs, bivalves, crinoids, octopus, and deep-sea fish including the endemic Ascension scorpionfish. Some of these sponges and gorgonian corals are very slow growing and are likely to be thousands of years old! They have existed untouched and undisturbed by the rest of the world, evading much of the anthropogenic pressures placed on other marine communities such as deep-sea mining and trawling.

The expedition discovered a new seamount in the northwest of the MPA in an area previously thought to be a large expanse of flat empty ocean. The seamount covers an area of 80 km2 and reaches 1000 metres from the sea floor - it is larger than Ascension Island itself! 

The discovery of this seamount and deep-sea animals and habitats are a great reminder of how little we know about the Ascension MPA and how vital these research expeditions are. They give island conservationists access to areas of open ocean and the deep-sea that would otherwise be impossible to reach.