Diving in the Solomon Islands, as we will never shy away from telling you, is something normally done in complete solitude as Emperor Bilikiki is one of the very few liveaboards exploring this part of the world.
It means the country’s water is under explored and blissfully unpopulated. Which probably explains why the world’s largest coral has, until now, gone undetected.
That was until a few weeks ago when a group of research scientists thought they had come across a shipwreck and went to explore.
As it turned out the crew of National Geographic’s Pristine Seas, who were in the Solomon Islands to survey the ocean’s health, had found a coral so big it has redefined the scale by which such ecosystems will gauged.
Find out more about this incredible discovery on the National Geographic website
The newly-discovered coral measures 34 metres wide, 32 metres in diameter and is 5.5 metres high – which beats by far any that had previously been thought of as the world’s largest, including one in American Samoa known as “Big Momma”.
It is roughly double the size of the Great Barrier Reef’s densest coral areas and could be as much as 500 years old.
The reason it has grown so large is probably because of its location being so undisturbed – both by mankind and from the elements.
The coral is in the Three Sisters island group, an area not traditionally featured on Emperor Bilikiki trips as it lies to the east of our diving sites. However, it does highlight the wonderfully unspoilt nature of this part of the Pacific Ocean.
It also shows that when we think we have discovered everything, there are still things out there that can come along and astound.
If you would like to find out more about diving in the Solomon Islands contact our amazing team on [email protected]