In 2016 , scientists made anastonishing discoveryof a coral Witwatersrand in the most unbelievable of places : the mouth of the Amazon River in Brazil . Now it looks like practise for oil colour in this domain may take lieu before scientists even get the chance to study it .
Corals usually live in saltwater , and lightness – often block out by turbid weewee in flowing rivers – is imperative for them to grow . The rima oris of the Amazon river , where seawater meets freshwater , is a tumultuous environment that nobody expected shallow , saltwater - loving corals to thrive in , but there it was .
However , the Brazilian government had already sold off exploration areas in the Foz de Amazonas ( mouth of Amazon ) , thought to be so rich in oil it could hold up to 15.6 billion bbl of the stuff , to outstanding oil company back in 2013 .
postal service - uncovering , this still come along to be drop dead ahead .
“ It ’s unlike any other Rand that we roll in the hay about , ” Sara Ayech , an crude oil campaigner at Greenpeace told theGuardian . “ If the companies practise there ’s a risk of exposure of an oil spillway and if an oil spill attain the Rand , then we could see role of it destroy before we even document them . ”
The crude company postulate – Total , BP , and Brazil ’s state - run oil company Petrobras – have design to start the exploration process as soon as August or September of this class . To do this , however , they have to carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment ( EIA ) that needs to be sign on off by the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources ( IBAMA ) .
So far , IBAMA has refuse their EIA , and the Federal Prosecutor for the State of Amapá , where the Witwatersrand is located , has recommend the suspension of both the crude geographic expedition and environmental licensing process , concord to aGreenpeace write up .
The EIA , which included “ spill risk modelling ” , was first conduct by Total and submitted back in 2015 , though it made no mention of the reef . The discovery of the Rand was announced in 2016 , but confirmation of the reef organization ’s being was really in 2012 . ameliorate versions , however , have calculate a30 percent chanceof the reef being affected by an oil spill – something the oil troupe are trying to make for down and conservationists are trying to wager up .
The Brazilian authorities has n’t made a decision on whether to debar geographic expedition – which would bring in a circle of money and jobs – although the press is mount for them to put protections in stead for this incredibly unequalled biome .
The coral Rand system address 9,500 klick square ( 3,670 mi squared ) , stretch from the French Guiana - Brazil border to the Maranhão State in Brazil . It ’s between 30 and 120 meters deep ( 100 and 400 foot ) , and has up to 61 species of sponge alone , 29 of which had not been seen before .
presently , only 5 percent of the Witwatersrand has been mapped . Let ’s desire researcher get to explore it further before the chance disappears .
