• A scientific expedition has discovered a previously unknown coral reef with abundant marine life off Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands.

• A deepwater scientific expedition has found the first totally pristine coral reef, approximately two kilometers long, and 400 meters deep, on the summit of a submarine mountain.

• Scientists had believed that the only Galapagos reef to survive El Nino weather in 1982 and 1983 was one called the Wellington reef, along the coast of Darwin Island, but the new discovery shows other coral has persisted.

• The reef has more than 50 per cent living coral. The coral is several thousand years old at least, experts said. 

• Last year, Ecuador expanded the Galapagos marine reserve by 60,000 square km, an extension of the 138,000 square km already in place, to protect endangered migratory species between the Galapagos and the Cocos Island in Costa Rica.

• The Galapagos, which inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, are also home to giant tortoises, albatrosses, cormorants and other species, some of which are endangered.

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