Maldives: Mantas and corals

Update from our Maldives coral reef and whale shark expedition

We’re in the groove now and checking those reefs like clockwork – well done team 1.

We moved to Alifu Dhaalu (South Ari) atoll and studied a couple of sites there, as per our schedule. They were outer sites and coral cover was unchanged from when we visited them last in 2023 (still few fish, as has been the case for more than a decade now – they are just being overfished). The good coral cover, however, is positive news, showing some resilience.

We’ll look at some inner atoll sites today and expect the story to be different, i.e. deteriorating inner reefs suffering from warming waters of climate breakdown.

We moored up for the night at manta site and had many encounters with them and a nurse shark. We also celebrated two birthdays on board (congratulations Maria & Olivier).

This is an update from our Maldives volunteer expedition encompassing volunteer scuba diving and marine biology volunteering. Join us on one of our future expeditions! You can find an overview of all our upcoming expeditions here.