Marine biologist Johnny Gaskell has made an astounding discovery on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef: a blue hole that is potentially older that the world famous Belize blue hole.
His discovery lies 200km/125 miles from Daydream Island. The good news with Gaskell’s discovery is that despite extensive coral bleaching in the area, the blue hole itself is home to a very healthy coral population.
According to The Daily Mail, exploring the new find was quite the undertaking. Gaskell said:
“Its location is in one of the least explored parts Great Barrier Reef, over 200km from Daydream Island.”
He added:
“To get there we had to travel overnight for 10 hours and time the tides perfectly. [It] was well worth it!”
After arriving at the site, a team of divers along with Gaskell explored the blue hole down to a depth of 20m/65ft. They found a sandy bottom that gradually sloped downwards towards the centre of the hole.
After the dive, Gaskell added:
“It was great to see big healthy coral colonies. Stay tuned for video footage of the coral within.”
While no video has been released yet, Gaskell indicated that some stunning footage will be coming soon.
