A coral reef written off as dead more than 60 years ago has been found alive off the coast of Benin. French ORSTOM surveys in 1963-64 logged a coral reef barrier at 52-56 metres off Dahomey, now Benin, and Togo. Working from dredge samples and acoustic returns without cameras, they judged it dead, and no coral surveys followed for over 60 years.

In 2025, the Beninese-led COREB project returned with side-scan sonar, an underwater drone and National Geographic's deep-sea camera system. At around 54 metres down, cameras revealed dense living mesophotic coral gardens – the dimmer zone below shallow reefs – with at least six octocoral types, two black coral taxa and eight reef-associated fish species.

The finding, documented in a study published in Frontiers in Marine Science, is the first confirmed evidence of living mesophotic coral communities on Benin's continental shelf. It is also the first documented on the Gulf of Guinea shelf. The reef sits in an unprotected, trawled fishing ground.

'This project shows the value of combining historical scientific observations with modern exploration technologies to rediscover ecosystems that were previously overlooked,' said lead author Gérard Zinzindohoué.