Coral Reef Diagnostics

Maldives - Dhega Thila

Reef Check Foundation
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Part of the regional summaries: Maldives - Central (Male Atolls / Ari / Vaavu) and Maldives

05
Coral Health Index: TBD
Photo: Anderson Mayfield/Coral Reef Diagnostics
Country
Maldives
Survey date(s)
2017-05-25
Coordinates
3.7923, 72.7384
Coral cover
23%
Computer vision (20 photos) · details below
Observations
not yet tagged for this site
Heat stress
Today’s heat load
29.7°C0.0°C-weeks
16 Sep 2026 · Bleaching Watch
5-year thermal stress load
5-year mean max. degree heating weeks (DHW)
2.2°C-weeksi
2021–2025
NOAA Coral Reef Watch — Maldives 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 infoMaldives (NOAA CRW virtual station) · Maldives ecoregion mean=2.9°C-heating weeks
Photographs
50
Site summary

A pinnacle crown packed edge to edge with staghorn and table corals under a permanent haze of anthias, with standout macro life including a black-and-blue nudibranch and bubble-tip anemones - among the most biodiverse sites of the trip. Computer vision cover estimate is 21-25%, averaging 23%.

Max. depth dived
30.5 m
dive-log maximum

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

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

4912212226272829303132333435363738394041424344454647484950

Photo credit & attribution

Site description

Setting

A pinnacle that seems to have shrugged off the bad years: its crown is a genuine coral garden, staghorn and table colonies packed edge to edge, smothered under a permanent orange blizzard of anthias (e.g., Image 1, Image 3, Image 5, Image 6, Image 7, Image 15, Image 16, Image 18, Image 23).

1Image 13Image 35Image 56Image 67Image 715Image 1516Image 1618Image 1823Image 23

General benthic features

Add crinoid-laden black coral bushes on the deep side and you have the most biodiverse hour of the trip's final days (e.g., Image 2, Image 8).

2Image 28Image 8

Coral cover

Coral cover: 23% — photo-derived, and the two methods broadly agree (25% vs 21%). This site's figure is the mean of two independent computer vision passes over Anderson's own frames: a DINOv3 calibrated point classifier reads 25.2% and a CoralSCOP computer vision reads 20.8%, a spread of 4.4 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 21–25% 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

Silversides pour off the ledges in glittering curtains, bluestripe snapper mass in golden blocks, and batfish drift overhead like kites (e.g., Image 13, Image 14, Image 17, Image 19, Image 20).

13Image 1314Image 1417Image 1719Image 1920Image 20

But the close-ups are the treasure here — anemones filling whole frames with green-tipped tentacles, their neighbors sporting swollen bubble-tips in pink; giant disc corals like patterned dinner plates; a wire coral's tiny zig-zag polyps; and a showstopper nudibranch striped in black and sky-blue with orange-studded ridges (e.g., Image 10, Image 11, Image 24, Image 25).

10Image 1011Image 1124Image 2425Image 25

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

DINOv3 25%, CoralSCOP 21%; the headline is their mean.
More infoAs 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.
The two methods broadly agree (spread 4.4 pp).
More infoThe published figure is the mean of the two methods.
MethodHard-coral cover (%)
In-house DINOv325.2
CoralSCOP20.8
Mean (± SD)23.0 ± 3.1
Range20.8–25.2

Mean ± SD and range are across the computer-vision methods shown.

Independent surveys nearby

Data availability near this site
Agency / programYear(s)Stations / distanceLink
Reef Check20061 station, 3.76 kmRecords ↓
Saponari L2016–20181 station, 1.58 kmRecords ↓
Hard coral cover over time — this site and 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%10%20%30%40%200620122018Reef Check 2006: 36%Saponari L 2018: 14%Dr. Coral (CRD) 2017: 23%Year-averaged across all programs: no detectable trend (-1.53 pp per year, not separable from zero; 3 years)
Reef Check Saponari L Dr. Coral (CRD)Year-average (no detectable trend)

Within 5 km, 2 independent survey stations recorded hard coral cover in 2 surveys between 2006 and 2018. The most recent nearby survey is from 2018, so these values predate recent heat stress. This site's own estimate (23%) sits within the range of these surveys (14–36%); 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), 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.

Independent survey data near this site
AgencySite / locationDateHard coral cover (%)DistanceLink
Reef CheckPanettone Reef200636%3.76 km—
Saponari LThudufushi, South Ari Atoll (shallow reef flat + crest)~2018 ("around 2 years after a coral bleaching event in 2016"; exact month not stated in the retrieved text)14%1.58 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.