Maldives - Camel Point
Part of the regional summaries: Maldives - Central (Male Atolls / Ari / Vaavu) and Maldives
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Maldives (NOAA CRW virtual station) · Maldives ecoregion mean=2.9°C-heating weeksA dive that opens on a quiet sand plain waiting for mantas before giving way to one of the trip's liveliest coral ridges - staghorn and table thickets, giant boulder corals, and anemone-draped rock faces, plus jewel-toned free-living mushroom corals. Computer vision cover estimate is 23-26%, averaging 24.2%.
Nine independent survey stations shown with the program’s logo — click one to see how far it is from this site.
19 of these 50 photographs are shown beside the text that discusses them under "Site description" below.
Site description
Setting
A dive of two moods. It starts on a bright sand plain where the divers settle in like spectators — the photographer's captions say it all: "waiting for Mantas," "garden eels" — with only a tantalizing winged shadow passing far out in the blue (e.g., Image 3, Image 24).
General benthic features
Then the point itself takes over: one of the liveliest coral ridges of the trip, with staghorn and table coral thickets running as far as visibility allows, giant boulder corals rising off the sand, and whole rock faces upholstered in swaying sea anemones (e.g., Image 2, Image 6, Image 7, Image 8, Image 11, Image 12, Image 13, Image 14, Image 23, Image 25).
Two jewel-toned mushroom corals — free-living discs rimmed in pink and violet — steal the macro show, alongside a giant clam with a dark, pale-rimmed mantle (e.g., Image 15).
Coral cover
Coral cover: 24% — photo-derived, and the two methods broadly agree (23% vs 26%). This site's figure is the mean of two independent computer vision passes over Anderson's own frames: a DINOv3 calibrated point classifier reads 22.9% and a CoralSCOP computer vision reads 25.5%, a spread of 2.6 percentage points. The map publishes the mean so sites can be sorted against one another, but the honest statement of what is known here is the 23–26% range: the two products have different denominators and should not be treated as one measurement.
Stressors
No crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) or other corallivores evident.
Fish and other fauna
Around it all, orange anthias smoke off the outcrops and neon fusiliers rush past in mid-water like traffic (e.g., Image 16, Image 18, Image 19, Image 20, Image 21, Image 22).
Comparisons with other data
No independent survey was made at this exact site; the nearest ones are listed in the table below.
CV model comparison
More info
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.More info
The published figure is the mean of the two methods.| Method | Hard-coral cover (%) |
|---|---|
| In-house DINOv3 | 22.9 |
| CoralSCOP | 25.5 |
| Mean (± SD) | 24.2 ± 1.8 |
| Range | 22.9–25.5 |
Mean ± SD and range are across the computer-vision methods shown.
Independent surveys nearby
| Agency / program | Year(s) | Stations / distance | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Montefalcone et al. (2020) | 2017 | 1 station, 2.77 km | Records ↓ |
| Reef Check | 1998–2017 | 7 stations, 2.11–4.11 km | Records ↓ |
| XL Catlin Seaview Survey | 2015–2017 | 1 station, 0.90 km | Records ↓ |
Dr. Coral (CRD)Year-average (no detectable trend)Within 5 km, 9 independent survey stations recorded hard coral cover in 20 records between 1998 and 2017. Of the 2 stations surveyed in more than one year, 2 increased between their first and latest surveys. The longest record, Vilm05/Vilamendhoo southwest (Reef Check, 3.94 km away), went from 6.2% in 1998 to 45% in 2012. The most recent nearby survey is from 2017, so these values predate recent heat stress. This site's own estimate (24%) sits within the range of these surveys (1.0–45%); the methods differ, so the comparison is context, not a like-for-like test.
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 range is shown. Station names are not dive-site names.
| Agency | Site / location | Date | Hard coral cover (%) | Distance | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reef Check | Vilm01 | 1998 | 5.0% (2 surveys) | 3.65 km | — |
| Reef Check | Vilm03 | 1998 | 9.1% (2 surveys) | 3.81 km | — |
| Reef Check | Vilm04 | 1998 | 12% (2 surveys) | 3.87 km | — |
| Reef Check | Vilm05/Vilamendhoo southwest | 1998–2012 | 6.2–45% (5 surveys) | 3.94 km | — |
| Reef Check | Vilm02 | 1998 | 5.6% (2 surveys) | 3.96 km | — |
| Reef Check | Banana Reef | 1998 | 12% (2 surveys) | 4.11 km | — |
| XL Catlin Seaview Survey | transect 37011 | 2015–2017 | 15–21% (2 images) | 0.90 km | — |
| Reef Check | Dangethi Inner Reef | 2017 | 26% (2 surveys) | 2.11 km | — |
| Montefalcone et al. (2020) | Dangethi House Reef | 2017 | 1.0% | 2.77 km | HeatCRD database |
Data & links
All images from Coral Reef Diagnostics. Data are from Coral Reef Diagnostics and the organizations named in the data-sources table above.
© Coral Reef Diagnostics.