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| Reef status | | Print | |
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The life on the Maldivian reef is characterised by a high biodiversity and an abundant fish life. Of the 2449 species recorded, 187 are stony corals and 1090 fishes. A mass bleaching event triggered by an increase in sea temperature during the 1998 El Niño caused mass mortality. Previously, live coral cover in Maldives often exceeded 75% but was reduced to less than 5 %. In comparison, the tsunami event of 2004 had very little direct impacts. The sum of all the localized negative impacts, even though not negligible, does not reach the level of devastation caused by this single event.
This spell did not affect the Maldives equally, and in particular the south of the Maldives has been somewhat spared and shows a much healthier coral growth. Even though in the north, the recovery is picking up, a recent study based on around 600 photographic transects we carried out in Baa atoll shows that the coral cover reaches an average of 23 %, far less than what it was only 10 years ago. On certain Maldivian reefs, groups such as zoanthids, corallimorpharians or sponges have been observed to compete with corals. If predation from cushion star does cause a lot of new recruits to die, crown-of-thorns, even though present, are not in high numbers. |
