Maldives - Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru
Part of the regional summaries: Maldives - North (Haa Alif to Baa / Lhaviyani) and Maldives
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Maldives (NOAA CRW virtual station)An unbroken carpet of staghorn and tabletop corals off Landaa Giraavaru, dense enough to hide a diver's shadow, photographed three months before the 2016 El Niño turned Baa Atoll's reefs bone-white.
Landaa Giraavaru ކައިރީގައި، ސްޓެގްހޯން އާއި ޓޭބަލް ހިރިގާ ކެނޑުމެއް ނެތި ކާޕެޓެއް ފަދައިން ފަތުރިފައި ހުރެއެވެ. އެ ހިރިގާ ހުރީ ފީނާ މީހެއްގެ ހިޔާވެސް ފޮރުވިދާނެ ވަރަށް ގަދަކޮށެވެ. މި ފޮޓޯތައް ނެގީ 2016 ގެ El Niño އިން ބ. އަތޮޅުގެ ފަރުތައް ކަށި ފަދަ ހުދު ކުލައަކަށް ބަދަލުކޮށްލުމުގެ ތިން މަސް ކުރިންނެވެ.
AI translation of this summary; the English is authoritative. (low confidence)
Four independent survey stations shown with the program’s logo — click one to see how far it is from this site.
13 of the 30 photographs on this page are shown beside the text that discusses them under "Site description" below.
Site description
General benthic features
Off Landaa Giraavaru in January 2016, the bottom disappears under an unbroken carpet of staghorn and tabletop corals — thickets dense enough to swallow your shadow, tables a meter wide stacked in tiers (e.g., Image 2, Image 8, Image 13, Image 20), and one table growing like a bonsai from the crown of a massive dome coral (e.g., Image 26).
Look closely and you'll find daisy-like polyps waving from a coral head like a field of tiny anemones (e.g., Image 27, Image 28).
Coral cover
- Reference: Claude CV point count (this site's photos)
- Coral cover: 62% — a blind Claude computer-vision point count of 38 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
Taken three months before the 2016 El Niño turned Baa Atoll's reefs bone-white, these photos show nearly continuous staghorn and table corals. Several table corals already carried sharply bounded, stark-white bare patches in January 2016, recent mortality, cause not stated (e.g., Image 2, Image 11, Image 29), and one massive colony carries a thin white band of recent partial mortality, cause not stated, around an older bare patch (e.g., Image 23).
No crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) or other corallivores were evident.
Fish and other fauna
Humbug damselfish hang in dithering columns over the branches, ducking in as one when anything looms (e.g., Image 1); blue chromis scatter like confetti over the thicket tops (e.g., Image 25); powder-blue tangs cruise the lanes between tables; and a spotted grouper keeps watch from a table's shade (e.g., Image 30).
Comparisons with other data
Reef Check surveyed a nearby station (LGT4) in 2007, 2008, and 2009, 0.18 km from the pin. Within 5 km, four Reef Check stations recorded station-year means of 10–48% hard coral cover between 2007 and 2009; the nearest, Reef Check at LGT4, 0.18 km away, read 10–21% between 2007 and 2009.
CV model comparison
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A few colony-focused photos raise the mean; the median is the typical photo. No computer-vision method yet 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
Other rows are for comparison only and are never averaged. No diver transect exists for these photos, so agreement between rows is not accuracy.| Method | Hard coral cover (%) | Photos (n) ± SE |
|---|---|---|
| In-house DINOv3 | 29.5 | |
| CoralSCOP edited | 44.7 | |
| Claude (edited photos) | 62.3 | n = 38 · SE 3.1 |
The two computer-vision methods disagree by 15.2 pp (29.5–44.7%) and read 17.6–32.8 pp below Claude's blind point count (62.3%); the headline is Claude's blind point count because no transect or manual count exists here.
See a more detailed, stand-alone version of this table.
Independent surveys nearby
Coral Reef DiagnosticsWithin 5 km, 4 independent survey stations recorded hard coral cover in 28 surveys between 2007 and 2009. Of the 4 stations surveyed in more than one year, 4 increased (by 2.0–15 points) between their first and latest surveys. Four stations share the longest span (2007–2009); one, LGT4 (Reef Check, 0.18 km away), went from 10% in 2007 (mean of 3 surveys) to 21% in 2009. The most recent nearby survey is from 2009, so these values predate recent heat stress. This site's own estimate (62%) sits 14 points above the range of these station-year means (10–48%); 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 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.
| Agency | Site / location | Date | Hard coral cover (%) | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reef Check | LGT4 | 2007–2009 | 10–21% (range of yearly means; 7 surveys) | 0.18 km |
| Reef Check | LGT3 | 2007–2009 | 21–36% (range of yearly means; 7 surveys) | 0.21 km |
| Reef Check | LGT2 | 2007–2009 | 25–48% (range of yearly means; 7 surveys) | 0.26 km |
| Reef Check | LGT1 | 2007–2009 | 27–44% (range of yearly means; 7 surveys) | 0.27 km |
Data & links
All images from Coral Reef Diagnostics. Data are from Coral Reef Diagnostics and the organizations named in the data sources above.
© Coral Reef Diagnostics.