DATELINE: 23rd October 2001

BRITISH REEF
A huge living reef about a square mile in size has been discovered just outside much-dived Swanage Bay, in Dorset.
Divers from Southampton Oceanography Centre and the Marine Conservation Society came across the reef by accident while mapping a bed of calcified seaweed (maerl) at a depth of 25m, writes Tony Sutton.
The reef, which could be the biggest in the UK, was made not by corals but by the honeycomb worm (Sabellaria spinulosa).
Dr Ken Collins of Southampton Oceanography Centre said he was stunned by the discovery and believes there could be more dotted around the UK.
"This reef is as important to British marine life as coral reefs are to tropical marine life," he says. "They consist of patchy mounds of intertwined worm tubes about half a metre high, or sometimes as a continuous crust.
"Gaps between the tubes and crevices are providing shelter for small crabs, molluscs and fish. The mounds themselves provide a habitat for organisms that you would normally expect on rocks, such as anemones, hydroids and bryozoans."
Dorset Wildlife Trust, English Nature, Durlston Marine Project and the Environment Agency will be working together to fund mapping and filming of the reef.
This is not the first living reef to have been found by scientists from Southampton Oceanography Centre. In the 1990s they discovered a deep, cold-water coral species (Lopheliapertusa), off north and western British coasts. The reefs were a good half-mile wide, with massive rounds rising from the seabed.

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