Maldives - Miyaru Bay
Part of the regional summaries: Maldives - Central (Male Atolls / Ari / Vaavu) and Maldives
2017-05-18
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Maldives (NOAA CRW virtual station) · Maldives ecoregion mean=2.9°C-heating weeksA low field of small cauliflower corals and knobby mounds recolonizing older framework, with healthy pale-tipped branching colonies suggesting active recovery from the 2016 bleaching, plus turtles and eagle rays cruising past. Computer vision cover estimate is 15%.
Four independent survey stations shown with the program’s logo — click one to see how far it is from this site.
Eight other CRD dive sites within 5 km shown in orange — click a marker to open its page.
19 of these 20 photographs are shown beside the text that discusses them under "Site description" below.
Site description
General benthic features
The reef itself tells a story of recovery — a vast, low field of small cauliflower corals and knobby mounds recolonizing an older framework, with a photogenic black-and-white-spotted guineafowl puffer bumbling over rock crusted in pink coralline algae (e.g., Image 1, Image 2, Image 6, Image 7, Image 8, Image 9, Image 10, Image 11, Image 13, Image 14, Image 19).
Coral cover
Coral cover: 15% — photo-derived, and the two methods broadly agree (15% vs 15%). This site's figure is the mean of two independent computer vision passes over Anderson's own frames: a DINOv3 calibrated point classifier reads 15.1% and a CoralSCOP computer vision reads 15%, a spread of 0.1 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 15–15% 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
"Miyaru" means shark in Dhivehi, but on these two dives the bay's gentle slope belonged to other big animals: a sea turtle wedged in among the corals at dusk, and spotted eagle rays gliding past in the blue the next morning, long tails trailing behind them (e.g., Image 3, Image 15, Image 17, Image 21).
Clouds of damselfish hover over the coral field, and healthy branching colonies with pale growing tips hint at a reef actively rebuilding itself after the 2016 bleaching year (e.g., Image 4, Image 5, Image 18, Image 20).
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 | 15.1 |
| CoralSCOP | 15.0 |
| Mean (± SD) | 15.1 ± 0.1 |
| Range | 15.0–15.1 |
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 | 1 station, 1.24 km | Records ↓ |
| Reef Check | 2022 | 1 station, 3.15 km | Records ↓ |
| XL Catlin Seaview Survey | 2015–2017 | 2 stations, 3.08–3.84 km | Records ↓ |
Dr. Coral (CRD)Year-average (no detectable trend)Within 5 km, 4 independent survey stations recorded hard coral cover in 5 records between 2015 and 2022. 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, 3.08 km away), went from 7.1% in 2015 to 5.5% in 2017. One survey since 2021 recorded 19%. This site's own estimate (15%) is indistinguishable from the recent value (19%): the 4.3-point gap is inside the ±7 percentage-point noise between methods; 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Montefalcone et al. (2020) | Cocoa Corner | 2015 | 76% best patch | 1.24 km | HeatCRD database |
| XL Catlin Seaview Survey | transect 37035 | 2015–2017 | 5.5–7.1% (2 images) | 3.08 km | — |
| XL Catlin Seaview Survey | transect 37036 | 2015 | 38% | 3.84 km | — |
| Reef Check | Gulhi Island Backreef | 2022 | 19% | 3.15 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.