Maldives - Checkout dive (Hulhumale outer reef)
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 shallow warm-up dive that packed in the trip's first sea turtle and first crown-of-thorns starfish within half an hour, over a slope still showing 2016 bleaching scars - dead coral framework, turf, and macroalgae alongside recovering mustard cauliflower corals. Computer vision cover estimate is 15-22%, averaging 18.8%.
Five independent survey stations shown with the program’s logo — click one to see how far it is from this site.
Two other CRD dive sites within 5 km shown in orange — click a marker to open its page.
Site description
Setting
The first splash of the liveaboard, a late-afternoon warm-up on a shallow, rubble-strewn slope — and the reef wasted no time introducing its cast.
General benthic features
Mustard-brown cauliflower corals compatible with Pocillopora stood out vividly against a substrate still carrying the scars of the 2016 bleaching year: dead framework dusted with turf, pink coralline crusts, and clumps of dark green macroalgae.
Coral cover
Coral cover: 19% — photo-derived, and the two methods broadly agree (15% vs 22%). This site's figure is the mean of two independent computer vision passes over Anderson's own frames: a DINOv3 calibrated point classifier reads 15.4% and a CoralSCOP computer vision reads 22.1%, a spread of 6.7 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 15–22% range: the two products have different denominators and should not be treated as one measurement.
Fish and other fauna
Within half an hour the log recorded the trip's first sea turtle, hunkered flat on the bottom among the rubble, and its first crown-of-thorns seastar, jammed under a ledge with only a bristle of dark spines betraying it. A big anemone flexing on the upper slope and a sea cucumber sprawled across a sand channel rounded out a checkout dive that doubled as a preview of everything to come.
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 | 15.4 |
| CoralSCOP | 22.1 |
| Mean (± SD) | 18.8 ± 4.7 |
| Range | 15.4–22.1 |
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) | 2015–2019 | 2 stations, 2.28–2.59 km | Records ↓ |
| Reef Check | 2010–2019 | 2 stations, 2.29–2.32 km | Records ↓ |
| XL Catlin Seaview Survey | 2015–2017 | 1 station, 0.54 km | Records ↓ |
Dr. Coral (CRD)Year-average (decreasing)Within 5 km, 5 independent survey stations recorded hard coral cover in 12 records between 2010 and 2019. Of the 4 stations surveyed in more than one year, 4 declined between their first and latest surveys. The longest record, Banana Reef (Montefalcone et al. 2020, 2.28 km away), went from 40% in 2015 to 19% in 2019. The most recent nearby survey is from 2019, so these values predate recent heat stress. This site's own estimate (19%) sits within the range of these surveys (1.8–41%); 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 | Banana Reef | 2010–2014 | 16–33% (2 surveys) | 2.29 km | — |
| XL Catlin Seaview Survey | transect 37001 | 2015–2017 | 1.8–14% (2 images) | 0.54 km | — |
| Montefalcone et al. (2020) | Banana Reef | 2015–2019 | 12–40% (4 surveys) | 2.28 km | HeatCRD database |
| Montefalcone et al. (2020) | Hulumale Beyru | 2015–2016 | 15–41% (2 surveys) | 2.59 km | HeatCRD database |
| Reef Check | Kuda Banana Reef | 2019 | 7.2% (2 surveys) | 2.32 km | — |
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.