Sea trees?

A few weeks ago we were doing some offshore research, filming some natural and artificial reefs with the ROV, and the Captain and I had an interesting conversation on the way back into port.

“I know a good spot for you guys to film some natural bottom with the ROV.”

“Oh yeah? What is it?”

“Trees.”

“Trees?”

“Yeah, trees.”

“Like some logs that were dumped by someone?”

“Nah, these are trees that are kinda growing out of the ground on the bottom.”

“Haha….riiiight.”

Last week, we decided to take a look....and he wasn't joking. I’ve never seen anything like it. Tree stumps, branches, and roots forming a dense, interwoven mat on the seafloor. What?!

It's believed that this area is newly uncovered, and this buried “forest” has apparently been unnoticed until recently. I flew the ROV up to the tree/root ledge and sure enough it looked like wood. There was a relatively large reef fish community running along the ledge for as far as I could see. I saw schools of snapper and tomtate swirling around the submersible as we inspected the structure and ran some transects. We also ran into some grouper, numerous chromis and damselfish species, and a blacktip shark being followed by 4 or 5 cobia. Obviously, it’s a natural reef providing habitat for reef fish species. And this isn't the only spot in the vicinity. There are other pockets of “sea forest” nearby, and some with higher densities of tree stumps. But where did it all come from? Is it some ancient forest that never fully decomposed from being buried for so long? Is it the world's weirdest and most obscure practical joke? I’m really curious. I think the next time we check this area out we’ll take some wood samples with the ROV grabber. Should be interesting, I’ll keep you updated.