Coral bleaching in the Maldives

The change of the reef top of Vadoo Island Resort , South Male Atoll

Dec '97	Mar '99	Mar '01	Feb '02
There is no bleaching coral. Large school of Green Puller. It looks just like scattered jewel stones.	The dead corals lay in heaps. Small school of Swallow-tail Puller.	Almost all the corals that we see have been dead.	The general appearance has not been changed remarkably. But there were some new young corals in this area. A tiny new hope...

The change of The Oblique Coral of Vadoo Island Resort , South Male Atoll

Feb '97	Dec '97	Mar '99	Mar '01	Feb '02
The Oblique Coral is the highlight of the house reef of Vadoo. Various kind of fishes lives on this beautiful and healthy coral as a patch reef.	Fishes were reduced. But the coral is still healthy.	The Oblique Coral has dead. The lower part of the body was covered with sand.	The dead Oblique Coral has been being covered with sand. I could find a new coral on it.	The new coral is growing healthfully.

Banana Reef

Mar '99

Feb '02

Banana Reef is the best
diving point in North Male Atoll

The table corals on the reef
top were all dead.

The dead table corals could
not sustain their shapes
and broke into pieces.
So there were no table
shaped dead corals.

The beach of Vadoo Diving Paradise , South Male Atoll

I drifted on shallow water with
my heart filled with grief.

I tried hard to find out a
surviving coral on the reef.

But there was none.

Finally I came upon this dead
coral.

A grave marker.

Bleaching Survivors
	Vadoo house reef : depth - 5m It was very hard to find out the surviving table coral.This is one of them. The tops of the branches are still bleaching. The survivors are all young coral. The size of this coral is about 8cm.
	Vadoo house reef : depth - 10m I could find the surviving coral in places at the depth of 10m. This coral is small,about 5cm.
	Vadoo house reef : depth - 15m I could find the surviving coral easily at this depth. About 30cm size table coral survived in places.