Taiwan - Lanyu (Orchid Island): Lion's Head Rock
Part of the regional summaries: Taiwan (mainland + offshore islands) and Taiwan
More info
Southern Taiwan (NOAA CRW virtual station)Two 2008 dives at Lion's Head Rock logged amazing coral cover and a sea snake that followed divers for 15 minutes in 50 m visibility. No cover was measured; Reef Check's closest station, 1.9 km from the approximate map position, recorded 45% hard coral in 2010.
2008年在獅頭岩的兩次潛水，記錄到驚人的珊瑚覆蓋，以及一條在50 m 能見度中跟隨潛水員15分鐘的海蛇。此處沒有測量覆蓋率；距大致地圖位置 1.9 km 的最近 Reef Check 測站於2010年記錄到45%的石珊瑚。
本摘要由 AI 翻譯；以英文版本為準。
Ten independent survey stations shown with the program’s logo — click one to see how far it is from this site.
Two other CRD dive sites with their own pages within 5 km shown in orange — click a marker to open its page.
Site description
Coral cover
- The logged "amazing coral cover" is a first-hand impression rather than a measurement; no cover was recorded.
Stressors
Anderson's dive log for the two dives here (12 July 2008) notes amazing coral cover, sea snakes, and 50 m visibility and records no bleaching, disease, crown-of-thorns starfish, or other stressor.
Comparisons with other data
The closest Reef Check site, Yie-yin Village, is 1.9 km from this approximate pin; its only survey date, 26 June 2010, recorded 45% hard coral (mean of 2 surveys, 3 m and 12 m; Reef Check data, a separate station, not a survey of this site). The most recent Reef Check surveys within 2 km, at Nipple Mountain (2.0 km), recorded 44% (mean of 2 surveys, 5 m and 10 m) on 10 June 2017, the value shown in the coral-cover tile. Across Lanyu, Reef Check station-year means ranged 6.3-67% hard coral cover between 1998 and 2019 (source: Reef Check).
Dive record
Two dives on 12 July 2008, entering at 15:00 and 17:00, to 24.4 and 22.3 m, dived on the west side of the rocks.
Other notes
The logs record amazing coral cover, a sea snake that followed them for 15 minutes, 50 m visibility, and 28.0°C water.
No underwater photographs from this site are on file.
Independent surveys nearby
Within 5 km, 10 independent survey stations recorded hard coral cover in 28 surveys between 1998 and 2019. Of the 2 stations surveyed in more than one year, 2 declined (by 5.0–8.0 points) between their first and latest surveys. The longest record, Hen Rock (Reef Check, 3.72 km away), went from 62% in 2015 (mean of 2 surveys) to 57% in 2019 (mean of 2 surveys). The most recent nearby survey is from 2019, so these values predate recent heat stress.
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 | GeeChang | 1998 | 6.3%, mean of 2 surveys (3 m and 10 m) | 4.16 km |
| Reef Check | Reef Outside Airport | 2009 | 11%, mean of 2 surveys (3 m and 6 m) | 3.71 km |
| Reef Check | Yie-yin Village | 2010 | 45%, mean of 2 surveys (3 m and 12 m) | 1.86 km |
| Reef Check | Lion Couple Rock | 2010 | 43%, mean of 2 surveys (3 m and 11 m) | 4.11 km |
| Reef Check | Hutoupo | 2014 | 50%, mean of 2 surveys (5 m and 10 m) | 4.62 km |
| Reef Check | Hen Rock | 2015–2019 | 50–63% (range of yearly means; 8 surveys) | 3.72 km |
| Reef Check | Langdao Harbor | 2015 | 46%, mean of 2 surveys (5 m and 10 m) | 4.89 km |
| Reef Check | Yeyou | 2016 | 20%, mean of 2 surveys (5 m and 10 m) | 4.50 km |
| Reef Check | Nipple Mountain | 2017 | 44%, mean of 2 surveys (5 m and 10 m) | 1.96 km |
| Reef Check | Lion Couple Rock South | 2018–2019 | 43–51% (range of yearly means; 4 surveys) | 3.95 km |
Data & links
Data on this page are from Coral Reef Diagnostics (the dive record) and the organizations named in the data sources above; Coral Reef Diagnostics has no coral cover estimate of its own at this site.
© Coral Reef Diagnostics.