Be sure to read our monthly updates from Marine Savers – direct from our resident teams at
the Marine Discovery Centres at Landaa & Kuda Huraa – our long-term partnership with Four Seasons Resorts Maldives.
Landaa Giraavaru
At Landaa during February, we transplanted 24 new coral frames, kindly sponsored by guests (12), the Resort (12), and online (0), adding ~1200 new coral fragments to the reef. These new frames were positioned at both the Whale Tail and Charlie’s Head sites. We also monitored (cleaned, repaired, photographed) a total of 482 frames at all sites around Landaa Giraavaru.
To see the progress of your own frame, please visit our dedicated Four Seasons monitoring page where we upload new photos every 6 months or so.
Spawning Device
Following adverse weather with the change of monsoon, we checked our spawning device for signs of damage. We found that the pipe had dislodged and lay across the tent, and many of the metal rods holding the tent’s structure need to be hammered down to secure the plastic top cover. Most colonies within the tent are dead, so we are planning to replace them with healthy new frames. To facilitate these maintenance dives, re-sealable openings have been made in the plastic top cover, so that divers can breathe under the tent without trapped air bubbles compromising the tent’s structure.
Kuda Huraa
At Kuda Huraa this month, our coral experts monitored 74 growing coral frames, and transplanted 10 new frames, kindly sponsored by guests (6), the Resort (3), and online (1). We focused on clearing dead coral from frames, repopulating, and monitoring our Chris Rock site. Most frames were repopulated with Acropora muricata fragments from large colonies outcompeting slower-growing species (Acropora humilis, Acropora hyacinthus).
To see the progress of your frame, please visit our dedicated Four Seasons monitoring page where we upload new photos every 6 months or so.
Corallivores
During monitoring, we actively seek and remove known corallivores that eat the living corals (see our guide). This month, 13 starfish and an impressive ~7800 corallivorous snails were removed. The snails were mainly species of Drupella in the reef flat behind the channel restoration site. We identified Drupella cornus, which are larger with a distinct white aperture, compared to the pink/purple aperture of other Drupella species.
Coral Spawning
This month, white eggs were recorded in Acropora vermiculata, [photo, below] which will be monitored in the coming months. The Acropora tenuis colony identified as gravid in January was no longer gravid before the February full moon. As it likely spawned between the new moon and full moon (an unusual period for Acropora corals), we are investigating whether reproductive synchrony has been disrupted in colonies affected by the 2024 bleaching event.
Resilient Corals: Genotype Experiment
🗓️ During November, we transplanted coral fragments from resilient natural colonies of Acropora vermiculata onto our frames at various sites.
🗓️ In January, we identified wild colonies of Pocillopora verrucosa and P. eydouxi which had survived the bleaching event, transplanted fragments onto frames (at the same sites) to monitor their progress in challenging conditions.
🗓️ In February, we completed our remaining experimental frames with fragments from three genotypes of six Acroporid species: A.muricata, A.tenuis, A.vermiculata, A.secale, A.torresiana, A.latistella. Each genotype was selected based on morphological differences in branch and corallite structure, assumed to indicate genetic variation. A total of six fragments (two per genotype) per species were transplanted onto three frames at depths of 4, 8, and 12m. Over the coming months, we will monitor how these genotypes respond to their new environments and whether they appear better adapted to specific depths.
