Maldives - Moofushi Kandu
Part of the regional summaries: Maldives - Central (Male Atolls / Ari / Vaavu) and Maldives
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Maldives (NOAA CRW virtual station)An early-morning channel dive dominated by a staggering school of bluestripe snapper and patrolling reef sharks over a current-scoured seabed of rubble and algae-dusted coral skeletons, with scattered patches of living corymbose and pocilloporid colonies on the channel shoulders.
ހެނދުނު އަވަހަށް ކުރި ކަނޑު ފީނުމެކެވެ. މި ފީނުމުގައި ފެނުނު މުހިންމު ކަންތަކަކީ bluestripe snapper ގެ ހައިރާންވާވަރުގެ ބޮޑު ޖަމާޢަތަކާއި، ފަރުގެ މިޔަރުތައް (reef sharks) ޕެޓްރޯލް ކުރަމުން ދިޔަ ތަނެވެ. ތިރީގެ ބިމަކީ އޮޔާއިން ސާފުކޮށްލާފައިވާ، ހިރިގާ ކުދިކުދިވެފައިވާ (rubble) އާއި ކަނޑުވިނަ ލެގިފައިވާ ހިރިގާގެ ކަށިތައް ހުރި ބިމެކެވެ. ކަނޑުގެ ދެފަރާތުގެ ކަނޑިތަކުގައި ދިރިހުރި corymbose އާއި pocilloporid ކޮލޯނީތައް ތަންތަނުގައި ހުރެއެވެ.
AI translation of this summary; the English is authoritative. (low confidence)
Seven independent survey stations shown with the program’s logo — click one to see how far it is from this site.
20 of the 30 photographs on this page are shown beside the text that discusses them under "Site description" below.
Site description
Setting
An early-morning channel dive dominated by fish (e.g., Image 1, Image 8); Anderson's field sheet notes numerous gray reef and whitetip sharks, huge schools of yellow snapper, and no crown-of-thorns damage.
Pure Maldivian channel diving.
General benthic features
The seabed itself is austere — current-scoured rock, rubble, and the algae-dusted skeletons of table corals — which only makes the sheer biomass funneling through this cut more remarkable (e.g., Image 7, Image 16).
Living coral persists in patches on the channel shoulders, with scattered corymbose, pocilloporid, and massive colonies (e.g., Image 19, Image 25).
Coral cover
- Reference: Claude CV point count (this site's photos)
- Coral cover: 7.4% — a blind Claude computer-vision point count of 24 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
Anderson's field sheet for this dive notes no crown-of-thorns damage.
Fish and other fauna
The main event is a single, staggering school of bluestripe snapper — a solid yellow river that parts around divers and reforms behind them, stacking into glowing walls over the channel floor (e.g., Image 3, Image 6, Image 10, Image 11, Image 12, Image 13).
Oriental sweetlips in piano-key stripes hold court on old coral tables, silver snapper clouds drift overhead, and the channel's enforcers make their rounds: a gray reef shark knifing through the blue, pale whitetip-type sharks hugging the pavement, and a nurse shark slumped on the sand like it worked the night shift (e.g., Image 4, Image 5, Image 14, Image 32, Image 20, Image 21, Image 22, Image 9).
Comparisons with other data
Montefalcone et al. (2020) surveyed a nearby station (Moofushi Kandu) in 1997, 1.00 km from the pin. Cover values from that work are not among the survey records shown on this page. Within 5 km, seven independent stations recorded station-year means of 3.8–71% hard coral cover between 2008 and 2025; the nearest of these, Reef Check at Maavaru Faru beyru, 2.83 km away, read 40% in 2019.
CV model comparison
More info
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 | 20.8 | |
| CoralSCOP edited | 10.9 | |
| Claude (edited photos) | 7.4 | n = 24 · SE 2.7 |
The two computer-vision methods differ by 9.9 pp (10.9–20.8%) and read 3.5–13.4 pp above Claude's blind point count (7.4%); 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
| Agency / program | Year(s) | Stations / distance | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Montefalcone et al. (2020) | 2017–2019 | 2 stations, 3.45–3.73 km | Records ↓ |
| Reef Check | 2008–2025 | 5 stations, 2.83–3.83 km | Records ↓ |
Coral Reef DiagnosticsYear-average (illustrative only, programs differ)Within 5 km, 7 independent survey stations recorded hard coral cover in 20 records between 2008 and 2025. Of the 3 stations surveyed in more than one year, 1 declined (by 9.3 points) and 2 increased (by 5.7–18 points) between their first and latest surveys. The longest record, Dega Thila (Reef Check, 3.83 km away), went from 14% in 2016 (mean of 2 surveys) to 4.7% in 2025 (mean of 2 surveys). Since 2021, station-year means average 4.2% (range 3.8–4.7%; n = 2 station-years from 4 records). This site's own estimate (7.4%) is not compared with these surveys: none lies within 2 km.
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. Values above 70% are marked “best patch”: surveys often target the densest coral on a reef, so these may overstate the site as a whole.
| Agency | Site / location | Date | Hard coral cover (%) | Distance | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reef Check | Dega Giri, Ari Atoll | 2008 | 67% | 3.74 km | — |
| Reef Check | Dega Giri | 2008 | 16% | 3.75 km | — |
| Reef Check | Dega Thila | 2016–2025 | 3.8–35% (range of yearly means; 10 surveys) | 3.83 km | — |
| Montefalcone et al. (2020) | Maavaru Faru Beyru | 2017–2019 | 53–71% (range of yearly means; 2 records) best patch | 3.45 km | doi:10.3389/fmars.2020.00587 |
| Montefalcone et al. (2020) | Maavaru Faru Etheru | 2017–2019 | 7.3–13% (range of yearly means; 2 records) | 3.73 km | doi:10.3389/fmars.2020.00587 |
| Reef Check | Maavaru Faru beyru | 2019 | 40%, mean of 2 surveys (5 m and 10 m) | 2.83 km | — |
| Reef Check | Maavaru Faru etere | 2019 | 16%, mean of 2 surveys (5 m and 10 m) | 3.30 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.