Category: Expedition Blogs

Update from our Maldives coral reef and whale shark expedition

Four days into the expedition, we’ve hit the groove. The first couple of days were intense, as always – cramming fish ID, invertebrates, substrate, coral disease & impact into citizen scientists’ brains, no gain without pain, late night sessions, tests, re-tests, success, until it all drops off and we can get into the real work of surveying. Well done to the team for rising to the challenge.

Yesterday, we did a test survey and this group of citizen scientist divers quietly got on with the job so well that our professional scientist Jean-Luc accepted the data. More surveys today, despite the squalls and the currents. Now, as night has fallen and I type away, they are on a night lazy dive, meaning there’s no surveying involved. Whether this is a reward or not, I am not sure.

The story from the Maldives that seems to be developing here, may be one of global significance, with echoes of it around other places in the tropics. The inner reefs, built over millennia in shallow waters, are suffering and increasingly seem doomed by climate change. Their corals simply cannot cope with the higher temperatures, gradually fading and dying, leaving space for other lifeforms to take over. Lifeforms that do not build reefs, so ocean rainforests turn to monocultures devoid of much life except a few specialised species. The outer reefs, however, exposed to colder waters from the open ocean are more resilient. But here too a great shift seems to be going on – the corals that cannot tolerate warmer waters fade away; the ones that can cope better with warmer waters survive and take over the vacant spaces. Evolution in action, reminiscent of a great city where gangs fight for turf and survival.

Does that mean that the outlook for reefs is not as bleak as it seems? Who knows. We need more time to study this, compare it to other parts of the world and draw conclusions. Whether we have the time to do this is another story. The supertanker is heading towards the harbour wall at full speed and nobody has turned the rudder around so far – far from it. Whatever we do, the corals themselves will provide the answer over time. The planet itself does not care what we humans do to it anyway. It’s been through much bigger upheavals and it is still the insignificant speck of dust it has always been at the edge of the great expanse of time and space.

But right here, in our very own great expanse of blue and azure, on this liveaboard, with this team of enthusiastic and capable citizen scientists and newly qualified Reef Check Ecodivers, it means our dives are not depressing at all. We’ve seen healthy reefs with healthy corals. Some bouncing back from development and other stresses, some quietly doing their thing despite the climate upheavals above the water.

So we dive right in, lay our 100 m line of science, count the fish, invertebrates, corals and much more along it and come out smiling. And that really is a reward, well deserved by all those on board who have opted to be small cogs in the wheels of reef research and conservation. Thank you for this.