Maldives - Hodeli Bodu Giri
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 pinnacle with some of the trip's lushest staghorn and cabbage-coral thickets and a centuries-old dome coral, though crown-of-thorns starfish are actively grazing it - on this dive the crew fought back, manually removing them from the reef. Computer vision cover estimate is 21-25%, averaging 23.2%.
Four independent survey stations shown with the program’s logo — click one to see how far it is from this site.
Nine other CRD dive sites within 5 km shown in orange — click a marker to open its page.
24 of these 28 photographs are shown beside the text that discusses them under "Site description" below.
Site description
Setting
The dive ends where the coral does, on a bare sand plain rolling away into open blue (e.g., Image 10).
General benthic features
A shallow, sun-drenched pinnacle stacked with some of the lushest coral thickets of the trip — interlocking staghorn gardens, whorled cabbage-like stands, and a grand honeycombed dome coral that must be centuries old (e.g., Image 5, Image 7, Image 9, Image 12, Image 13, Image 14, Image 15, Image 17, Image 18, Image 19, Image 20, Image 22, Image 23, Image 25).
Coral cover
Coral cover: 23% — photo-derived, and the two methods broadly agree (21% vs 25%). This site's figure is the mean of two independent computer vision passes over Anderson's own frames: a DINOv3 calibrated point classifier reads 21% and a CoralSCOP computer vision reads 25.4%, 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
But look closer and there's a battle in progress: crown-of-thorns starfish are grazing here, leaving sharp white feeding scars on the big dome and stripping patches of table corals — and on this dive the crew fought back, one diver methodically hunting the spiny predators off the reef with a collection stick (e.g., Image 1, Image 2, Image 3, Image 4).
Fish and other fauna
Blue-green chromis hang over the branches in shimmering clouds while fusiliers in yellow and blue rocket along the slope (e.g., Image 6, Image 8, Image 11, Image 21, Image 24).
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 | 21.0 |
| CoralSCOP | 25.4 |
| Mean (± SD) | 23.2 ± 3.1 |
| Range | 21.0–25.4 |
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 | 1 station, 4.34 km | Records ↓ |
| Reef Check | 2012 | 1 station, 4.45 km | Records ↓ |
| XL Catlin Seaview Survey | 2015–2017 | 2 stations, 2.45–2.59 km | Records ↓ |
Dr. Coral (CRD)Year-average (no detectable trend)Within 5 km, 4 independent survey stations recorded hard coral cover in 7 records between 2012 and 2017. Of the 1 station surveyed in more than one year, 1 changed by less than 5 percentage points between their first and latest surveys. The longest record, transect 37035 (XL Catlin Seaview Survey, 2.45 km away), went from 7.1% in 2015 to 5.5% in 2017. The most recent nearby survey is from 2017, so these values predate recent heat stress. This site's own estimate (23%) sits within the range of these surveys (5.5–38%, excluding 1 best-patch value above 70% that is not a site mean); 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. Values marked best patch exceed 70%: surveyors usually chose the richest area, so they are not site means.
| Agency | Site / location | Date | Hard coral cover (%) | Distance | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reef Check | Biyadhoo House Reef | 2012 | 18% (3 surveys) | 4.45 km | — |
| XL Catlin Seaview Survey | transect 37035 | 2015–2017 | 5.5–7.1% (2 images) | 2.45 km | — |
| XL Catlin Seaview Survey | transect 37036 | 2015 | 38% | 2.59 km | — |
| Montefalcone et al. (2020) | Cocoa Corner | 2015 | 76% best patch | 4.34 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.