Hawaiian Black Coral: Earth Longest Living Organism

[Aquanomad]

This is an impressive discovery. Over 4,000 years old!!!!
KHNL : New species of black coral in Hawaii identified as longest-lived marine organism
Terry Kerby and his team at HURL have made many exciting discoveries over the years. They do more submersible dives than anyone except for a Russian team iirc. Also in conjunction with Monterey Bay are the only ones to archive all their footage for review and scientific studies later. They are also the team that recently discovered the Japanese sub with a airplane hangar.
Dive discovers missing aircraft hangar of sunken WWII-era Japanese submarine : University of Hawai

With $3 million in funding loss from UH the program may be forced to retire. Its really to bad. They have 2 Pisces subs, a capable ROV, and some mean one offs like their LRT (Launch, Recovery, Transport). If you have never seen this video check it out.
https://youtu.be/2SqxDtnZyKM

The crew over at HURL are no joke. Heres to hoping and angel investor jumps in. Ehem. Musk, Trump, Gates, errr.. even the Kamehameha Endowment. If any of you happen to be following SB that is [emoji12]

 

[tursiops]

I thought stromatolites had the record for being the oldest marine organisms.

 

[Aquanomad]

I think the article might have used lazy journalism jargon when they said organism and then reiterated it irresponsibly. The living part of the coral is actually an animal. Not a plant or other organism. Thats the reason many varieties are covered under CITES. I would be curious to know though. Is the skeletal structure 4000 yr old or the animals that live in each 1mm divot that old? Either way. Impressive underwater sleuthing.