A unique combination of natural resources, physical infrastructure, and workforce development initiatives has helped North Carolina create one of the largest and most diverse marine science clusters in the United States. Please explore this site and its interactive map to uncover a few of the reasons marine science businesses and researchers are flocking to North Carolina.
Those truths lie in massive, aged coral reefs, buried off the coasts of the Carolinas, Georgia and eastern Florida. The deepwater coral reefs, and the sea life in them, could hold cures to cancer and historical information on environmental changes over thousands of years, say scholars familiar with Ross' work.
Scientists have studied and documented the value of protecting coral ecosystems near the shore for years. But deep-sea coral has remained uncharted territory. Ross, a UNC Wilmington marine scientist, has led an effort to locate and study deep-sea coral ecosystems off the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. Next month, he will make his fourth trip out into the Atlantic Ocean to study what may be the largest contiguous distribution of deepwater corals in the world. Read More...