Indonesia - Komodo NP: Loh Sera

⬇ Download this page as a report card

Part of the regional summary: Indonesia - Komodo

Photo: Anderson Mayfield/Coral Reef Diagnostics

Country

Indonesia

Survey date(s)

2019-01-24

Coordinates

-8.6000, 119.5500

Coral cover

30%

Claude computer vision (118 edited photos) · other methods below

Observations

shipwreckbleaching

Heat stress

Today’s heat load

27.0°C 0.0°C-weeks

16 Sep 2026 · No heat stress

5-year thermal stress load

5-year mean max. degree heating weeks (DHW)

6.3°C-weeksⁱ

2021–2025

NOAA Coral Reef Watch — East Nusa Tenggara 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 info

East Nusa Tenggara (NOAA CRW virtual station) · Lesser Sunda ecoregion mean=6.9°C-heating weeks

Photographs

Site summary

Read this summary in:

Loh Sera is a fringing reef dominated by extensive Acropora sheets and thickets in clear, calm water, with high overall coral diversity, but numerous large Seriatopora caliendrum colonies were found partially bleached at their tips - a notable stressor Anderson flagged as unclear in cause. The surface was also littered with garbage. A blind Claude computer-vision point count puts coral cover around 30%, among the highest of the trip.

Max. depth dived

18.3 m

Water temp. during survey

25.6°Cⁱⁱ

-2.3°C vs the 2019 mean sea temperature (27.9°C)

ii Dive-computer reading of 78°F, converted; reported to one decimal because the instrument resolved whole degrees Fahrenheit.

One other CRD dive site within 5 km shown in orange — click a marker to open its page.

5 of these 50 photographs are shown beside the text that discusses them under "Site description" below.

Photo credit & attribution

Site description

Setting

A fringing reef dived at low tide. Corals were exposed to air. 10 m viz and no current=among best diving conditions of trip.

General benthic features

Descended upon sheets of foliaceous corals (unsure of species), as well as vast swaths of Acropora, which dominated the shallows at all parts of dive (e.g., Image 5).

Still, soft corals tended to dominate in many areas. Even saw Anacropora for the first time this trip. Pachyseris and other foliaceous corals common from 2 m to surface, though branching Acropora were the dominant shallow coral. Hydnophora was common at 1 m in many places. Finger Porites, P. rus, and some small massive poritids, though this was not a reef built by Porites (e.g., Image 4).

Seriatopora hystrix, Pocillopora acuta, and Pocillopora verrucosa were all common. In fact, this may have been the site with the most Pocillopora acuta. Little coral below 17-18 m: just sand. Stylophora pistillata. Galaxea relatively common (e.g., Image 1).

Small wrecked fishing boat covered in soft corals and hard corals (e.g., Image 3).

Beautiful. Acropora, Pocillopora acuta, Pocillopora verrucosa, Pachyseris, and 5-10 other species (at least) on the wreck. High Acropora diversity and cover at site (best of trip for cover). Euphyllia, Merulina, Plerogyra, Fungia.

Coral cover

Coral cover: 30% — a blind Claude computer-vision point count of 118 of Anderson's edited photographs (20 points per photo; water, fish, and obstructions excluded). Other computer-vision methods are listed in the method table.

Stressors

Numerous large, bleached Seriatopora caliendrum with live tissue. Unsure what is going on there. Bleached Seriatopora caliendrum was also found on the wreck. Nearly all Seriatopora caliendrum was partially bleached at top (bottoms of branches were pigmented) (e.g., Image 2).

Surface was covered in garbage. No crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) or other corallivores evident.

Fish and other fauna

One new nudibranch. Golden sweepers.

Comparisons with other data

No prior survey data from this site. If you would like to share yours, please email us.

Dive record

2019-1-24 dive 1: Loh Sera (#20). 7:50-8:51 (61 min). Max. depth=18.3 m. Temp.=25.6ºC. 30% oxygen.

CV model comparison

As of September 2026 no computer-vision method estimates coral cover accurately on new images, so treat this as indicative rather than a measurement; it is revised as the methods improve.

Headline: Claude computer vision — a blind point count of this site's own photographs (Anderson, 2026-09-27: Claude CV is the main coral-cover value).

More info

DINOv3 and CoralSCOP were run on the same photos and are listed for comparison. Coralscapes v2 and v1 were also run but are not shown: Anderson does not consider Coralscapes reliable for these photos. No diver transect exists for this trip, so agreement between the rows is not accuracy, and as of September 2026 no computer-vision method estimates coral cover accurately on new images; treat every row as indicative.

Method	Hard-coral cover (%)
In-house DINOv3	34.6
CoralSCOP edited	45.5
Claude (edited photos)	29.7

Data & links

All images from Coral Reef Diagnostics. Data are from Coral Reef Diagnostics.