Coral Reef Diagnostics

Taiwan - Lanyu (Orchid Island): South of Twin Lion Rocks

Reef Check Foundation
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Part of the regional summaries: Taiwan (mainland + offshore islands) and Taiwan

05
Coral Health Index: TBD
Country
Taiwan
Date(s) visited
2008-09-21
Coordinates
22.0854, 121.5657
Approximate position.
Coral cover
43%
survey at this site: Reef Check, Lion Couple Rock South station, mean of 2 surveys (5 m and 10 m), 2019-06-30, 0.00 km away
Observations
None tagged; see Stressors below
Heat stress
Most recent heat load record
28.5°C0.8°C-weeks
26 Oct 2026 · Bleaching Watch
5-year thermal stress load
5-year mean max. degree heating weeks (DHW)
12.6°C-weeksi
2021–2025
NOAA Coral Reef Watch — Southern Taiwan virtual station
i 5-year mean max. DHW is the mean of the annual maximum DHWs over the five complete years named above, not conditions today.
More infoSouthern Taiwan (NOAA CRW virtual station)
Site summary
Read this summary in:

A 2008 dive south of Twin Lion Rocks where Anderson's log records abundant hard coral; no cover was measured on this dive. Reef Check's Lion Couple Rock South station, where the map pin now sits, recorded 43% hard coral in 2019.

Max. depth dived
16.8 m
Sea surface temp. (satellite)
29.0°C
satellite sea surface temperature (SST) on the survey date (NOAA Coral Reef Watch, Southern Taiwan), not an in-water reading; it is the warmest-pixel (90th percentile) reading in the station area and can run 1–1.5°C above the reef
Bottom time
58 min
in at 07:30

Seven 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

Stressors

Anderson's dive log for this dive (21 September 2008) describes the hard coral cover as just amazing and records no bleaching, disease, crown-of-thorns starfish, or other stressor.

Comparisons with other data

The pin sits on Reef Check's Lion Couple Rock South station; its latest surveys, on 30 June 2019, recorded 43% hard coral (mean of the 5 m and 10 m surveys; Reef Check data, a separate survey, not a survey of this dive). Across Lanyu, Reef Check station-year means ranged 6.3-67% hard coral cover between 1998 and 2019 (source: Reef Check).

Dive record

One dive, 21 September 2008, entering at 07:30 for 58 minutes to 16.8 m.

Other notes

Anderson's log is a strong first-hand account: the site had been dived before, and the log calls the hard coral cover just amazing, with excellent visibility and water temperature.

No underwater photographs from this site are on file.

Independent surveys nearby

Hard coral cover over time — every independent station within 5 km. Programs are shown separately because they use different methods at different stations; the lines are not one comparable series.
0%17%34%51%68%201020142019Reef Check 2010: 43%Reef Check 2010: 48%Reef Check 2015: 46%Reef Check 2015: 57%Reef Check 2015: 62%Reef Check 2017: 44%Reef Check 2017: 50%Reef Check 2018: 51%Reef Check 2018: 63%Reef Check 2019: 43%Reef Check 2019: 57%Year-averaged across all programs: no detectable trend (+0.69 pp per year, not separable from zero; 5 years)
Reef CheckYear-average (no detectable trend)

Within 5 km, 7 independent survey stations recorded hard coral cover in 22 surveys between 2010 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, 0.86 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.

Independent survey data near this site
AgencySite / locationDateHard coral cover (%)Distance
Reef CheckLion Couple Rock201043%, mean of 2 surveys (3 m and 11 m)0.18 km
Reef CheckVirgin Rock201048%, mean of 2 surveys (3 m and 10 m)4.27 km
Reef CheckHen Rock2015–201950–63% (range of yearly means; 8 surveys)0.86 km
Reef CheckLangdao Harbor201546%, mean of 2 surveys (5 m and 10 m)3.74 km
Reef CheckMaiden Rock201557%, mean of 2 surveys (5 m and 10 m)4.95 km
Reef CheckNipple Mountain201744%, mean of 2 surveys (5 m and 10 m)2.21 km
Reef CheckLion Couple Rock South2018–201943–51% (range of yearly means; 4 surveys)0.00 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.