From the surface, “it looked like a shipwreck,” said Molly Timmers, lead scientist of the Pristine Seas expedition. But the team’s cinematographer dove to take a closer look and found a “mega coral hiding in plain sight.”

The enormous organism is bigger than a blue whale and made up of millions of genetically identical, tiny animals called polyps

The largest coral in the world has been found in the Solomon Islands. The coral, which is visible from space, is three times larger than the previous record-breaker, and is believed to be about 300 years old.