Reef Check Foundation
Coral Reef Diagnostics

Atauro - Watuwai

Coral Triangle Center (CTC)
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Part of the regional summary: Timor-Leste

05
Coral Health Index: TBD
Country
Timor-Leste
Survey date(s)
2024-01-29
Coordinates
-8.2318, 125.6123
Coral cover
65%
newest survey within 0.5 km, not this site: Reef Check, Rai keta tungu station, 2017-12-15, 0.09 km away
Observations
None tagged; see Stressors below
Heat stress
Most recent heat load record
29.1°C0.0°C-weeks
26 Oct 2026 · No heat stress
5-year thermal stress load
5-year mean max. degree heating weeks (DHW)
5.7°C-weeksi
2021–2025
NOAA Coral Reef Watch — Timor-Leste virtual station
i 5-year mean max. DHW is the mean of the annual maximum DHWs over the five complete years named above, not conditions today.
More infoTimor-Leste (NOAA CRW virtual station)
Site summary
Read this summary in:

Anderson dived Watuwai, off Atauro, on 29 January 2024 (50 minutes, to 32.6 m, 27.8°C average); the camera failed and no photographs survive. The closest Reef Check station, 0.09 km away, recorded 65% hard coral on 15 December 2017.

Max. depth dived
32.6 m
Water temp. during survey
27.8°Cii
-1.2°C vs the 2024 mean sea temperature (29.0°C)
ii Average water temperature of the logged dive (dive log); the dive computer's minimum was 26.7°C.
Bottom time
50 min
in at 10:39

Twelve independent survey stations shown with the program’s logo — click one to see how far it is from this site.

Seven other CRD dive sites with their own pages within 5 km shown in orange — click a marker to open its page.

Site description

Coral cover

Stressors

No bleaching, disease, crown-of-thorns starfish, or other stressor is recorded for this dive (29 January 2024) in Anderson's dive log, and the camera failed on the dive, so there are no photographs to review.

Comparisons with other data

The closest Reef Check site, Rai keta tungu, is 0.09 km from this site's map position; its only survey, on 15 December 2017, recorded 65% hard coral (one 9 m transect; Reef Check data, another organization's station, not a survey of this dive).

Dive record

Watuwai was dived once, on 29 January 2024: 50 minutes, 32.6 m maximum and 15.2 m average depth, average water temperature 27.8°C (dive-computer minimum 26.7°C).

Other notes

The camera failed on this dive, and no photograph of Watuwai survives.

Independent surveys nearby

Data availability near this site
Agency / programYear(s)Stations / distanceLink
Coral Triangle Center (CTC)20174 stations, 0.65–4.90 kmRecords ↓
Reef Check2004–20176 stations, 0.09–4.10 kmRecords ↓
XL Catlin Seaview Survey20142 stations, 0.60–2.48 kmRecords ↓
Hard coral cover over time — every independent station within 5 km. Programs are shown separately because they use different methods at different stations; the lines are not one comparable series.
0%17%34%51%68%200420102017Reef Check 2004: 33%Reef Check 2017: 25%Reef Check 2017: 39%Reef Check 2017: 49%Reef Check 2017: 53%Reef Check 2017: 65%XL Catlin Seaview Survey 2014: 17%XL Catlin Seaview Survey 2014: 21%Coral Triangle Center (CTC) 2017: 36%Coral Triangle Center (CTC) 2017: 41%Coral Triangle Center (CTC) 2017: 47%Coral Triangle Center (CTC) 2017: 49%Year-averaged across all programs: illustrative only; the programs differ in stations and method, so no trend is claimed (3 years)
Reef Check XL Catlin Seaview Survey Coral Triangle Center (CTC)Year-average (illustrative only, programs differ)

Within 5 km, 12 independent survey stations recorded hard coral cover in 16 surveys between 2004 and 2017. The most recent nearby survey is from 2017, so these values predate recent heat stress.

Collected by other programs using different methods (Reef Check uses point-intercept transects; the XL Catlin Seaview Survey uses photo-transects with automated image annotation), so these are context for the figures above, not a like-for-like comparison. Where a station was surveyed more than once, the cell shows either the range of its values or, as a single value, the mean of surveys made in one year. Station names are not dive-site names.

Show all 16 independent surveys
Independent survey data near this site
AgencySite / locationDateHard coral cover (%)DistanceLink
Reef CheckSouth of Tanjung Reta200433%, mean of 2 surveys (5.8 m and 12 m)4.01 km—
XL Catlin Seaview Surveytransect 30015201421%0.60 kmdoi:10.14264/uql.2019.930
XL Catlin Seaview Surveytransect 30014201417%2.48 kmdoi:10.14264/uql.2019.930
Reef CheckRai keta tungu201765%0.09 km—
Coral Triangle Center (CTC)Beloi (10)201749%0.65 kmCurrier K, Marine P, Welly M. 2017. Atauro Island MPA. MERMAID
Reef CheckWatu ai201749%0.74 km—
Reef CheckRai keta rala201739%0.74 km—
Reef CheckHaru ina201753%, mean of 2 surveys (9 m and 16 m)1.39 km—
Coral Triangle Center (CTC)Outer Reef (09)201741%1.46 kmCurrier K, Marine P, Welly M. 2017. Atauro Island MPA. MERMAID
Coral Triangle Center (CTC)Vila (11)201736%2.23 kmCurrier K, Marine P, Welly M. 2017. Atauro Island MPA. MERMAID
Reef CheckVila South201725% (3 surveys)4.10 km—
Coral Triangle Center (CTC)Lampian (12)201747%4.90 kmCurrier K, Marine P, Welly M. 2017. Atauro Island MPA. MERMAID

Data & links

Data on this page are from Coral Reef Diagnostics (the dive record) and the organizations named in the data sources above; Coral Reef Diagnostics has no coral cover estimate of its own at this site.

© Coral Reef Diagnostics.