Maldives: Sickness & Health

Update from our Maldives coral reef and whale shark expedition

Group 2 is now also qualified – well done – and checking those reefs.

The stories are as mixed as has been the weather. There are some quite healthy reefs and some that are sick.

Fish are scarce, especially grouper, because there is immense fishing pressure due to (over)tourism and a very active grouper fishery that sells them off as food fish, mainly to Hong Kong as live fish for restaurant aquariums there.

Not so fun fact: Before tourism, Maldivians did not really consume reef fish, only line-fished tuna, so the pressure on and decline of reef fish is on tourism.

We also found one site infested with sponge yesterday, probably due to siltation caused by land-reclamation, as well as nutrient saturation (we did not see where from).

We have today and tomorrow left to check four more reefs, if all goes well.

Also, when a dive was cancelled yesterday due to bad weather, we heard an interesting talk from one of our placements about her NGO Maldives Resilient Reefs.

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.