[Coral-List] An extensive reef system at the Amazon River mouth

[Meesters, Erik]

There is quite some misinformation on the internet and this system is often called a gigantic coral reef system (e.g. here http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/coral-reef-discovered-amazon-river-brazil-a6998356.html and here http://edition.cnn.com/2016/04/23/world/amazon-river-coral-reef-irpt/index.html). The latter shows a picture of a sponge claiming it to be a coral.

I've been approached by the press to comment on this fantastic new discovery of a new coral reef. After the bleaching of the GBR people think that this is good news! But...
After reading the paper and looking at the supplements I believe that no one would actually call this a coral reef system. I totally understand that calling it a coral reef system generates much more publicity, but there are people wondering what reef scientists have been doing if they miss a coral reef of 9000km2.

I think it should be made clear that this is not a coral reef in the sense that people expect. It's a reef probably to some degree biogenic formed by calcareous algae and Rhodolits.

Cheers,
Erik