Coral Reef Discovery and the Importance of Happy Accidents

As Bob Ross liked to say, we don’t make mistakes, just happy accidents. The realm of scientific and technological innovation is not exempt from the odd happy accident — some of which go on to change the world.

Plenty of modern innovations were invented or discovered by accident. Penicillin is a famous example; discovered by a coincidence of culturing, it has gone on to save thousands of lives. There are even more happy little accidents to explore — post-it notes for those late-night study sessions were invented by accident. X-rays just so happened to appear in the midst of another experiment. Also, the cosmic background radiation left by the Big Bang and the creation of the universe: scientists initially had no idea what they were hearing or why, and had to rule out initial assumptions of pigeons nesting too near their antennae. Brandy was a byproduct of trying to make wine shipping more efficient. And that's to say nothing of artificial sweeteners, safety glass, and matches. Accidents are an important part of science and progress even now, because as recently as October, a team from National Geographic accidentally stumbled upon the world's largest single coral colony. 

Corals are marine animals that form colonies, known as coral reefs, which serve as habitats for some of the most vibrant and diverse underwater ecosystems on Earth and offer both food and shelter to a wide array of marine life. The team were out on the waters of the Southwest Pacific Ocean for an expedition to film and study the health of the various marine environments in and around the Solomon Islands when they accidentally stumbled across a colony thought to be composed of nearly a billion individual ‘polyps’.

The discovery is particularly remarkable considering the massive size of the mega-coral. Measuring approximately 34 by 32 metres — equivalent to the length of about 3.5 double-decker buses or even longer than a blue whale — it also stands around sixteen feet high, comparable to the average giraffe, which typically reaches between fourteen and nineteen feet. Clearly, its size wasn’t the reason it remained undiscovered for so long. Given that it is believed to be both 300 years old and visible from space, it’s frankly impressive it took humans this long to find it. 

It’s a good thing it’s been discovered too, as this allows for the colonies to be studied by climate and ocean researchers and hopefully be protected in the future. Not only that, but its discovery comes with good news to boot: researchers believe the colony is in good health, which serves as a pleasant change from more recent fatalistic media coverage about coral.

This discovery reminds us that there is still much for us to explore and discover in our world, plenty to be excited about and strive for in the future, and many more happy accidents to come. It also serves to give us hope for the future and the resilience of our seas when we may otherwise feel like we’re staring down the barrel of climate change.

Illustration by Isabelle Holloway