Marriott Team Diaries: November 2025

St. Regis Vommuli

This month, we created 6 new coral frames of various sizes, kindly sponsored by guests, the resort, and online. Multiple coral frames were checked as part of our 6-monthly monitoring, involving cleaning and repairing, and uploading new photographs to our website for our kind sponsors 🙏. We conducted 6 maintenance snorkels/dives, focusing on repairing our coral frames at the Whale Bar and Adopt-a-Coral sites.

To check the progress of your frame, please visit our dedicated St Regis monitoring page where we upload new photos every 6 months or so.

🪸 Coral Maintenance & Monitoring

We continue to expand the line of small coral frames that guide guests from the shoreline to our restoration sites, enhancing both accessibility and the overall guest experience.

Following the strong currents in October and the significant impact on the Whale Bar site, this month’s efforts focused on salvaging broken coral fragments and reattaching them to their original frames. Most of the damaged colonies belonged to Acropora muricata and A. digitifera. By the end of the month, approximately 70% of the broken fragments had been successfully reattached. Additional viable fragments were also used to populate the new coral frames constructed this month. Our Whale Bar area remains vulnerable, and we plan to relocate frames into the lagoon for greater long-term resilience.

At the Adopt-a-Coral site, a mild increase in sedimentation was observed, resulting in several small frames becoming partially buried at the beginning of the month. Maintenance efforts here focused primarily on removing any marine debris, establishing the new coral-frame path, and clearing macroalgae from the frames to ensure healthy growth conditions.

Coral Spawning

This spawning season marked one of the most important moments in our restoration project so far: for the very first time, our coral frames spawned! We were delighted and excited to witness spawning from our very first St Regis frame, namely SR0001 !

We successfully observed our propagated colonies of Acropora digitifera release their gametes into the water column, confirming that the corals we have been nurturing for the past 2.8 years have now reached full reproductive maturity. This milestone highlights not only the resilience and sustained growth of the corals, but also confirms the importance and success of our long-term restoration efforts. With these corals now capable of spawning naturally, there is real potential for new colonies to settle and establish themselves on our house reef and neighbouring reefs, contributing to a healthier and more resilient ecosystem.

Marine Education & Awareness

📱 Socials – During this month we created 3 reels for the Reefscapers social media account, clocking up 44k views and 2k likes.

🤿 Marine Biology Excursions – we attended two Dolphin Cruises and two coral gardens excursions, enjoyed by a total of 22 guests. The most common sightings were blacktip reef shark and eagle rays, along with our new octopus residents at the Whale Bar site.

Staff – At the beginning of the month, we made a brief visit to the Sheraton Resort, where we had the opportunity to meet with the team and enjoy a Reefscapers Marriott team reunion. We also welcomed Phebe as our new Marine Biology intern, and her contributions have already been invaluable. She has actively participated in coral frame building, site maintenance, and snorkelling excursions, and has successfully completed her BASE training. We are excited to have her on the team and look forward to her continued involvement in the project.

🪸 St Regis Maldives Relaunch: Marine Activities

From 8 to 11 November, The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort held its relaunch event, showcasing the newly renovated areas completed throughout the year. The celebration brought together the resort’s owners, representatives from Marriott International, VIP sales agents, and various media partners.

Reefscapers hosted the participants in three main activities:

1) Adopt-A-Coral Experience – guests participated in our coral frame adoption. We attached coral fragments to a new frame, and discussed our marine conservation work and the vision behind our Reefscapers coral restoration program. We also delivered a short talk, highlighting key milestones achieved to date, including surpassing 300 coral frames planted around the island and reaching an important benchmark: our oldest frame has now grown large and healthy enough to serve as a donor colony for new coral frames. This moment represents a full restoration cycle and showcases the long-term success of the project.

2) Art Exhibition – in collaboration with Maaenboodhoo School, we hosted an art exhibition during the event, showcasing creative pieces made by local students aged 6 to 13. These artworks were created using only marine debris and recyclable materials, as students portrayed their vision of the importance of the ocean. The winning students will be awarded a day visit to the resort, including a hands-on “Build a Coral Frame” experience – we look forward to welcoming them soon!

3) Guided Snorkelling – guests joined a guided snorkelling tour of our coral restoration site. During the visit, we presented the newly established coral-frame path, the iconic “Adopt-a-Coral” sign, and several significant frames, including our very first coral frame number 100. We then continued the snorkel tour by exploring the marine biodiversity of our island house reef.