Maldives - Kandooma Thila

Setting

Kandooma Thila is where the current does the introductions.

General benthic features

On the reef itself, pink coralline crusts and dark coral bushes frame the residents — a big turtle wedged in asleep, a striped oriental sweetlips with buttercup fins, a grumpy puffer parked between the branches, and a massive dome coral that has clearly seen decades of currents like today's (e.g., Image 9, Image 12, Image 14, Image 15, Image 16, Image 18, Image 21).

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Coral cover

Coral cover: 10% — photo-derived, and the two methods broadly agree (13% vs 7.3%). This site's figure is the mean of two independent computer vision passes over Anderson's own frames: a DINOv3 calibrated point classifier reads 13.2% and a CoralSCOP computer vision reads 7.3%, a spread of 5.9 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 7.3–13% range: the two products have different denominators and should not be treated as one measurement. He is actively comparing CoralSCOP and DINOv3 against newer CV models and will swap in an updated figure here once a more reliable model is found.

Stressors

No crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) or other corallivores evident.

Fish and other fauna

Two dives here — one at first light, one in afternoon glass — produced a parade of gray reef sharks, from hazy dawn silhouettes to a spotlight-crisp frontal pass, one shark trailing a retinue of little jacks (e.g., Image 4, Image 5, Image 22, Image 10, Image 24, Image 25, Image 11).

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The pinnacle's edges churned with life: a chevron wall of barracuda, horned unicornfish squadrons, dense blue riverine schools of fusiliers, and surgeonfish darting up to chase divers' bubbles (e.g., Image 6, Image 1, Image 2, Image 7, Image 13, Image 23).

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Comparisons with other data

No independent survey was made at this exact site; the nearest ones are listed in the table below.