The Smithsonian Institution’s Deep Reef Observation Project (DROP)

Compared to shallow coral reefs there has been very little scientific research on reefs below 45 meters largely due to limitations imposed by SCUBA diving. Since 2010 researchers under the leadership of the Smithsonian’s Dr. Carole Baldwin began exploring deeper reefs to depths of 300 meters o the coast of Curaçao using the mini-submarine “CuraSub” from Substation Curaçao. This has so far resulted in the discovery of more than 50 new sh and invertebrate species. 

This news article was published in BioNews 29

BioNews is produced by the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance and funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs.