Coral Reef Revival

Climate change is at the forefront of many people’s minds, and this acknowledgement has risen immensely in the last few decades. Whether positive or negative, human impacts on the climate are being taken into account more frequently, and unfortunately, the negative side outweighs the positive one. With that, people are also beginning to be impacted more negatively by this news, with around “53% of people around the world…more worried about climate change this year than last year,” according to The Peoples’ Climate Vote 2024. While this awareness is a beneficial part of humanity taking accountability, finding the spurts of positivity in it is crucial. Today’s story is indeed a wonderful example of that. 

In the 1960s, surveys were conducted off the coast of Benin in West Africa. In particular, these surveys were designed to evaluate fish diversity across reefs in the Gulf of Guinea to determine whether trawlable seabeds were present. It is important to note that bottom trawling is now more widely unacceptable, because, as Ellie Hooper on Greenpeace.org states, it is “a destructive method of fishing that involves dragging heavy, weighted nets across the sea floor in an effort to catch fish.” After failing to find any favorable conditions, the precise location of the reefs was documented in disregarded paperwork. Plus, with a rise in reef bleaching at the time, researchers pieced together that the reef must have died.

Jump forward 6 decades and a new team of researchers is diving back into the waters to discover what truly happened to the reef. Before all this happened, five years earlier, in 2021, Gérard Zinzindohoué, the project lead for Coral Reefs Rediscovering & Exploration in Benin, saw his first coral reef in Cape Verde. After witnessing the beauty of the naturally occurring ocean environment, Zinzindohoué asked himself, as he told YaleEnvironment360, “Do we have any reefs in Benin?” This curiosity is what led Zinzindohoué to embark on a new wave of exploration off the coast.

Before beginning this era of research, Zinzindohoué had to receive funding. Thankfully, he was given a $20,000 National Geographic Explorers grant in 2025, which finally gave him the leverage he needed. Working out each component of the project took some time; things such as the research vessel took weeks of negotiating with local fishermen. Eventually, though, the team was able to use their sonar equipment to identify two strong pings. Bringing this information back to National Geographic, the team was then provided with a “Deep Sea Camera System,” as stated by goodnewsnetwork.org, and what showed up was breathtaking. 

The videos revealed six types of soft coral, two black corals, and eight species of sheltering fish. Zinzindohoué was ecstatic, and so were his teammates. Shortly after, he even shared the information with Houangninan Midinoudewa, the man who mentioned the 1960s research project, who was, at the time, “...really joyful and really overwhelmed,” according to YaleEnvironment360. Now, Zinzindohoué and his team hope to preserve the untouched ocean habitat, providing it the same protection that these few decades have provided. 

The climate is changing, and there is no denying it; however, moments like these show that positive occurrences are also happening. Finding an untouched coral reef is rare, but smaller initiatives can occur with the same impact. Going outside to pick up trash, becoming a volunteer for a wildlife initiative, and even reading this story can spark change, all of which can be similar to Zinzindohoué’s initial aha-moment in Cape Verde.