During April, we built 14 new coral frames (out-planted at depth) and monitored a total of 124 coral frames at various sites around the island. During the upcoming weeks, monitoring will be on hold as we focus on our coral bleaching mitigation efforts.

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

Summary of our reef regeneration sites around the island. We have paused all recycling work until the ocean temperatures have returned to normal.

• Blue Hole – At this site, we lifted a few frames due to sand movement. We have started to see paling of our coral frames, especially the smaller colonies and newly attached fragments.
• Water Villas – Removal of algae continues, but the strong currents and abundant fish life are also working in our favour to minimise algal growth. Some coral paling has been observed.
• Dive Centre & Boat Garden – The frames here are at depths of 10-12m, and so far, are not showing any signs of bleaching, including the newly transplanted fragments. This has been a reassuring development, indicating depth is sheltering the corals from the rising temperatures. The visibility at this site is also typically quite poor, which might also be benefitting the corals (reducing any UV stress). We suspect the corals in the shallows have been just as affected by solar irradiance as temperature, due to the large numbers of fluorescing colonies we are observing. Therefore, the poor visibility, coupled with the depth, at the boat garden may be protecting these corals from bleaching.
• Dive Centre Pyramids – paling here is being seen in the large table colonies, which have managed to shelter several colonies below them. The bleaching at the Dive Centre has not been as bad as the Blue Hole and Water Villas, likely due to the slightly increased depth. Some removal of Drupella snails was needed throughout the month.
• Lagoon Pyramids – some bleaching has been recorded at this site, but for the most part, the corals are doing well and the design of the structures provides shade for lower colonies.

Coral Bleaching Monitoring

Bleaching surveys continued this month, repeating the transects conducted in March. We are repeating these surveys every 2 weeks throughout the bleaching season to monitor both bleaching and potential recovery. We are surveying 1,162 colonies across various sites around the island, and scoring the colonies using the MMRI National Protocol.

Bleaching score key: (1) No bleaching, (2) 1-10% of colony bleaching, (3) 11-50% bleaching, (4) 51-99% bleaching, (5) 100% bleached, (6) Dead.

There is an identifiable trend of increased bleaching throughout April, with the rate of bleaching on the increase as we would expect. We also see higher scores in Acropora corals compared to Pocillopora corals, again as expected (Acropora is fast-growing but can be vulnerable to elevated temperatures).
🗓️ Survey #2 (early April): the average score for most species is between 2-3, suggesting 1-50% of the colonies are bleaching.
🗓️ Survey #3 (2 weeks later): scores are approaching averages of 4, indicating 51-99% of the colonies are bleached.

Along with scoring individual colonies, we are also taking monitoring photos of the surveyed frames every 2 weeks. These images will hopefully be used by our Reefscapers team as part of our AI development project to monitor corals and analyse big data (photos above).

Shaded frames

We have moved some coral frames into the shade to protect them from the sun and lower the UV stress. We relocated some of the palest coral frames to see if the shade could aid their recovery, and we are closely monitoring progress. Initial results are showing some decreases in paling levels and even signs of recovery (in A. digitifera); some colonies have remained at the same paling score and not worsened; some colonies (of A. tenuis) have worsened despite being in the shade for three weeks.

Frame SH365

In the image below, use the slider handle to see our Reefscapers frame #SH365 as photographed in November 2023 (healthy) and on 20 April 2024. Note the coral colonies have started to lose their colouration, and several appear fully bleached white. Elevated ocean temperatures create stress in the coral colonies, and if the temperature remains high for many consecutive days, the corals are known to expel their symbiotic zooxanthellae in a process called coral bleaching.

Coral Spawning & Gametogenesis

New Moon period – we conducted several monitoring night dives, and successfully observed coral spawning in 2 different species of Acropora.

Full Moon period – we conducted regular night dives over a 10-day period, and successfully observed coral spawning in 4 different species (total 42 colonies) and in 12 different species (total of 205 colonies) a few days later.

Marine Life

🤿 Snorkelling Excursions – Our ‘Maldivian Journey’ snorkelling trips proved very popular this month (33 guests), and averaged more than 90 minutes per trip. We were excited to spot blacktip reef sharks and spotted eagle rays.

🐬 Dolphin Cruises – our 5 dolphin cruises were well attended, and the Spinners put on a great show for the thrilled guests, as always! In addition, we sighted a small pod of short-fin pilot whales during a fishing trip, and a pod of Bottlenose dolphins at our Dive Centre lagoon. We have also had a few additional sightings of green turtles at the sea grass patch – very encouraging!

🎙️ Marine Talks – In total, 32 guests attended 8 marine talks this month, averaging over 40 minutes duration.

♻️ Earth Day: ‘EcoSort’ Challenge – our new marine pollution awareness game! We aim to engage and educate guests on the different objects which can end up in our oceans, and to promote the steps the Sheraton Maldives have made to increase sustainability around the island. The game was launched with the help from our colleagues at Recreation on World Earth Day (22 April). We received some great feedback from guests, so will soon be adding EcoSort to the new activity calendar to be hosted once a week at Anchorage.

Education & Awareness

▶️ YouTuber Ettan Ehsan visited the Sheraton in April 2024. We sat down with him for an educational video aimed at young kids about coral reefs and coral conservation. We also built a frame to showcase the restoration work and efforts.

▶️ French journalist, Sebastien Farcis, South Asia correspondent for Radio France International, visited Sheraton for an interview with Reefscapers as part of an ongoing story on the coral bleaching event in Maldives. He spent 2-3 hours on the island for a radio interview that was later published on their website.

During May, we built 12 new coral frames, out-planted at 11m depth at the Boat Garden site. In addition, we monitored (cleaned, repaired, photographed) a total of 23 coral frames at our Water Villas site. The routine monitoring of our frames has been paused due to the ongoing coral bleaching event (caused by the current marine heatwave). We continue to monitor for bleaching and mortality (see below), but we are not adding/recycling new coral fragments as they are particularly vulnerable to heat stress.

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

Coral Propagation Sites

Summary of our reef regeneration sites around the island. We have paused all recycling work until the ocean temperatures have returned to normal.

• Blue Hole – coral bleaching at this site is becoming more severe, and we are starting to see some mortality of our coral frame colonies. Most of the colonies remain alive, but are highly stressed (bleaching and fluorescing). Some maintenance work has started to remove the dead colonies, and we have been lifting some frames due to sand movement.
• Water Villas – coral bleaching is increasing, and we are seeing some high levels of mortality in newly transplanted frames (more vulnerable to heat stress). Most Acropora colonies are bleached, but show low mortality so far.
• Dive Centre & Boat Garden – frames around the pyramids are bleaching, and there is some mortality. The boat garden frames (at 10-12m depth) are still looking healthy, with very few colonies paling. We will continue outplanting new frames at this site.
• Dive Centre Pyramids – some coral mortality, particularly in large colonies of Acropora cytherea. Interestingly, some colonies are already starting to show signs of recovery, plus some lower more-shaded colonies on the under side of the pyramids remain healthy.
• Lagoon Pyramids – significant mortality as we expected, due to the stillness of the lagoon and higher temperatures at this site. Significant maintenance will be required to remove the dead colonies and re-space the healthy ones.

Coral Bleaching Monitoring

Bleaching score key: (1) No bleaching, (2) 1-10% of colony bleaching, (3) 11-50% bleaching, (4) 51-99% bleaching, (5) 100% bleached, (6) Dead.

Bleaching surveys were conducted twice in May, in the first and the second half of the month. The majority of Acropora species are showing average bleaching scores around 5 (100% bleached). In some species (eg: A.hemprichii, A.tenuis) the rate of bleaching has slowed throughout May, and some species (eg: A.digitifera) are averaging lower scores than the other species within the genus.
Pocillopora corals are overall much healthier than Acropora, with average bleaching scores between 1 and 2 (0-10% bleached).
This month, we have seen a progression of coral bleaching averages from around 4, to closer to 5-6, as the degree heating weeks accumulate. We have also just started to record high levels of mortality in some sites.

Bleaching by Site

Bleaching has been widespread in Acropora species across our main sites: Dive Centre, Blue Hole, and Water Villas. On average, the bleaching scores appear lower at the Dive Centre (coral pyramids). Similarly, frames at the Blue Hole site are slightly healthier than the Water Villas frames. This trend correlates with the depth of each site, as the frames at the Water Villas are the most shallow, and the pyramids at the Dive Centre are the deepest. During this vulnerable period for corals, we are closely monitoring for aggressive corallivores (Drupella snails, and crown of thorns starfish) but thankfully we have not seen any so far.

Coral Spawning & Gametogenesis

New Moon period – our night-snorkelling checks identified one colony of A. tenuis spawning (which had also spawned in April). Some checks had to be cancelled due to stormy weather and rough seas.

Full Moon period – checks were not possible due to bad weather.

Research Submissions

This month, we successfully submitted our second research paper to a scientific journal, “Environmental Factors Influencing Acropora Coral Spawning Timing and Synchronicity Across Two Maldivian Atolls”. We hope this paper will be accepted for publication, thereby advancing Reefscapers’ contributions to this field of coral sexual reproduction, and increasing our research output from here at Sheraton Maldives. (More info on our historical research.)

Marine Life

🤿 Snorkelling Excursions – Our ‘Maldivian Journey’ snorkelling trips were attended by a total of 20 guests, averaging ~80 minutes duration. Blacktip reef sharks and hawksbill turtles were seen on multiple trips. Spotted eagle rays were seen around our island, along with green turtles at the sea grass patch. Overall, turtle sightings are much higher in the first five months of 2024 than in 2023.
Snorkelling Safaris to nearby reefs recorded regular sightings of stingrays, and one excursion was lucky to sight a juvenile whaleshark! This is rare for North Malé Atoll, but sadly the whale shark had a dorsal fin injury, likely from boat damage.

🐬 Dolphin Cruises – Spinners were sighted during both trips this month, but no other species were recorded.

🎙️ Marine Talks – a total of 13 guests attended our 6 talks this month, averaging ~40 minutes duration. Numbers were down due to the low tourist season and stormy weather conditions.

During June, we built 7 new coral frames, and monitored (cleaned, repaired, photographed) a total of 21 coral frames. We have slowed our routine frame monitoring to continue our focus on the ongoing effects of the marine heatwave (1,247 corals monitored for bleaching).

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

Coral Propagation Sites

Summary of our reef regeneration sites around the island. We have paused all recycling work, as newly transplanted coral fragments are particularly vulnerable to both elevated temperatures and predation.
Bleaching surveys continued this month, repeating the transects conducted at the end of May. A total of 1,247 coral colonies were surveyed using the MMRI bleaching score system. The increased levels of coral mortality were clearly seen across all sites.

• Blue Hole – We are seeing increased stress levels (fluorescing) and some mortality on our tunnel frame. Some buried frames were lifted from the shifting sands with help from our Reefscapers colleagues Kathryn and Sofia, from Four Seasons Kuda Huraa.
  478 coral colonies are being surveyed at his site for bleaching. Since early March, bleaching has now reduced but mortality has increased to 64%.
• Water Villas – Many frames need recycling, especially the newer fragments with small vulnerable coral fragments. Removal of algae and dead fragments will continue into July. A total of 696 coral colonies are being surveyed for bleaching, with mortality increasing to 77%.
• Dive Centre & Boat Garden – Many corals are currently bleached, so we are hoping these will start to recover, especially those colonies being shaded by large table corals. From our transect bleaching surveys, mortality has increased to 29%.
  Some good news at the Boat Garden site, as frames here at 10-12m depth are showing little signs of bleaching and remain largely healthy. We will continue to plant new frames here. We also GPS re-mapped this site, cleaning and re-arranging frames as we went, with help from our Kuda Huraa colleagues.

Marine Life

🤿 Snorkelling Excursions – 6 excursions were conducted this month (one ‘Reef’ plus 5 ‘Safari’), enjoyed by a total of 19 resort guests for an average duration of 47 minutes. Green turtles are re-visiting our seagrass site, and a hawksbill turtle was spotted at the Dive Centre pyramids. It is great to see more turtles appearing around the island, and there have been guest sightings of turtles at the water bungalows.

🐬 Dolphin Cruises – Only 1 dolphin cruise this month, plus a single pod of 20 Spinner dolphins was sighted between 2 snorkelling sites. In addition, a pod of bottlenose dolphins visited the Sheraton Dive Centre lagoon!

🎙️ Marine Talks – In total this month, 24 guests enjoyed 6 marine talks, averaging 28 minutes duration. This included a sea turtle talk, and overall we received great feedback from guests regarding the World Ocean Day activities.

Marine Education & Awareness Activities

🌏 World Ocean Day (8 June) was commemorated with various marine activities, including the creation of a medium-sized coral frame at Anchorage, where guests helped to transplant the 65 coral fragments.

♻️ EcoSort Challenge is our new marine pollution awareness game, aiming to engage and educate guests on trash items that can end up in our oceans. We have now officially added this event to our activity calendar (Wednesdays at 2pm at Anchorage). During June, a total of 21 guests participated, for average engagement times of 20 minutes.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Kids Club Field Trip was enjoyed this month by 14 children plus 2 parents. We talk about building our Reefscapers reefs from coral frames, and discuss the attachment and growth of corals. We maintain a fun and educational conversation with hands-on demos and an enthusiastic Q&A session.

🚸 Villa School students visited this month, for a presentation about the coral restoration efforts by Reefscapers and the projects at Sheraton.

🤝 Familiarisation – Sheraton hosted Mr Neeraj Govil, Marriott International’s Asia-Pacific COO, covering 570 properties across the region. I had the privilege of meeting him to discuss our Reefscapers coral restoration project, and we transplanted a new coral frame.
I was also delighted to host photographer Paul Pasytsch to build a coral frame, and assist with posts and videos for Reefscapers and Sheraton social media, showcasing our coral restoration site at the Dive Centre.

▶️ Social Media content shared during June included 5 posts, 27 stories and 6 reels. We reached a total of 200k accounts this month (+6%) and gained 1,150 followers, taking our total to almost 34k people.

During July, we built 12 new coral frames, and monitored (cleaned, repaired, photographed) a total of 5 coral frames. We have slowed our routine frame monitoring to continue our focus on the ongoing effects of the marine heatwave (1,247 corals were each monitored twice for health: bleaching, mortality, recovery).

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

Coral Propagation Sites

Bleaching surveys continued this month, repeating the transects conducted at the end of May. A total of 1,247 coral colonies were each surveyed twice, using the MMRI bleaching score system. Mortality has increased, but some recovery from bleaching has been seen around the island.

• Blue Hole – We have collected some healthy but damaged corals (eaten by triggerfish) to rebuild frames. We have been monitoring the healthy or slightly bleached coral carefully, and removing any diseased corals. Reducing mortality rates especially after the bleaching is a priority. Any dead frames were lifted. Of the 478 coral colonies being surveyed at this site, the fully healthy corals represent only 7% of the total, with mortality increasing to 76%.
• Water Villas – Some frames have been remade using broken healthy corals, and a lot of maintenance work was carried out to remove dead fragments from frames. We also started re-tagging frames to make it easier to ID corals going forward, both for sponsors and during our spawning season research. Of the 696 coral colonies under CoralWatch, only 10% of corals remain unaffected, and mortality has increased to 83%.
• Dive Centre & Boat Garden – Coral health remains steady, and although a lot of damage has been done, we are hopeful that conditions can only improve from now. Nonetheless, marine life is still very abundant, and makes for a good snorkelling spot for guests. Of the 73 colonies being surveyed, 12% of corals show no signs of bleaching, and mortality is now up to 47%. The Boat Garden frames continue to do well, with a little mortality possibly due to differences in substrates.

• Lagoon – Bleaching surveys were not conducted here as we used the dive centre pyramids. Based on a site-visit this month, we have unfortunately lost most of this coral. Out of four coral pyramids, there are only about 5 colonies left alive.
• Gili’s – This site is hard-to-access and only monitored infrequently, as it is located further out from the resort. We visited the site during July, and we are pleased to confirm that the corals have very much recovered since the initial paling observed in May! There are still some signs of coral bleaching at the 5m depths, but the various species of Acropora remain largely unaffected. We plan to expand this site in future months, and hope corals will continue to grow well here.

Marine Life

🤿 Snorkelling Excursions – throughout July, we conducted 12 guest excursions and held 49 guest activities. A total of 10 guests joined us for the ‘Maldivian Journey’ snorkelling activity, plus we conducted 1 ‘Reef Snorkelling’ trip and 5 ‘Snorkelling Safaris’. Megafauna sightings around the Dive Centre & Pyramid sites included nurse sharks, whitetip reefsharks and green turtles.

🐬 Dolphin Cruises – we conducted 6 dolphin cruises this month, with multiple sightings of spinner dolphins which always put on a great show for our delighted guests!

🎙️ Marine Talks – A total of 36 guests attended marine talks, with average duration of 42 minutes. An additional four talks were delivered for staff training purposes.

Marine Education & Awareness Activities

♻️ EcoSort Challenge – continues to be popular and receive great feedback! A total of 36 curious guests enjoyed the activity this month, averaging an increased duration of 49 minutes, with high levels of engagement.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Kids Club Field Trip – 36 kids joined for marine field trips, lasting an average of 35 minutes each. With the invaluable input and assistance from our resort colleagues in Recreation, we have been improving this activity to keep the kids engaged and to maintain their interest throughout.

🤝 Familiarisation – We hosted four trips this month, including a journalist video interview where we described our coral restoration project and discussed global climate change. They had never snorkelled before, but after some reassurance and coaching they went on to enjoy swimming around our coral restoration sites (and even returned the next day!)
– Internship – We hosted Ilaan for 2 weeks, learning about our coral restoration techniques and engaging with guest activities… a great help!
– We invited some newly-hired resort colleagues from Guest Services to join us in building an Adopt-a-Coral frame and learn about our coral propagation work. The activity was fun and successful, and will be useful for spreading the word of our restoration work with newly arrived resort guests.
– We were also delighted to host fashion model Sirikit (and her partner), the new ‘godmother’ of our partnership with The Coral Planters. The popular social media couple joined us for a week at the Sheraton to learn about and to promote our work on social media platforms.

🔬 Research – we were invited to an event at the Ritz-Carlton, along with other Marriott-based marine biologists. It was an excellent opportunity to present our coral spawning research and share knowledge around our extended team of colleagues. This was followed by popular interactive discussion hosted by renowned international climate activist, Saad Amer, about all things plastic-waste and climate-change.

👩‍🏫 Maldives Marine Science Symposium #5 (24-25 July): a bi-annual science conference, held at Maldives National University (MNU) in Malé, to provide a platform for Maldives-based scientists to present their marine research. Our Reefscapers teams came together to showcase our spawning research, and we enjoyed meeting other local and international marine biologists based around the Maldives, for discussions and potential future collaborations.

▶️ Social Media during July included 4 posts, 10 stories and 6 reels. Our most popular reel (with Proshot) reached 20k accounts, and our followers increased to almost 34k total, by month-end.

During August, we built 14 new coral frames, kindly sponsored by guests (3), the Resort (8), and online (3). In addition, we monitored (cleaned, repaired, photographed) a total of 14 existing coral frames, mainly at the Dive Centre site by using broken healthy coral from the dive centre pyramids.

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

Coral Propagation Sites

Bleaching surveys continued this month, repeating the transects started back in May, covering a total of 1,247 coral colonies. Mortality continues to increase slightly, and some recovered colonies are showing signs of disease and predation. Recovery from the bleaching is being increasingly observed around the island. 

• Blue Hole – Following the last few months we have continued to collect broken healthy coral from this site to remake frames. Many frames were also lifted from the sand and readjusted in the blue hole. 478 coral colonies are being surveyed for bleaching at this site. Since early March, our transects reveal that mortality rates have increased from 1% to 78%.
• Water Villas – Huge progress has been made, removing dead colonies from frames. We began re-building sponsored frames using triggerfish-damaged coral from the blue hole, however, we noticed the fragments paling a lot. We have paused our transplanting at 1m depth while we will see how these fragments progress over the coming weeks. We may also relocate some of these frames to deeper water over the next month.
  696 coral colonies are being surveyed here for bleaching. Since early March, our transects reveal an increase in mortality from 1% to 84%.
• Dive Centre & Boat Garden – A total of 12 scuba maintenance dives were carried out this month, to repair the coral frames at this site. Many large colonies on the pyramids, which died from the bleaching event over the last few months, have now fallen off. We removed any fallen colonies as they were damaging the surrounding healthy corals. Some healthy colonies had also fallen, so we simply reattached these. We also observed a large coral frame was slowly being covered in macroalgae (Padina), so we rescued the healthy corals and relocated them to the pyramids. Much of the remaining frame underneath was dead (with lots of corallivorous Drupella snails).
  73 coral colonies at his site are being surveyed for bleaching. Since early March, mortality has increased from 0% to 55% here. Frames are currently being added to the boat garden site which is expanding very well, and we are continuing to lift any buried frames from the sand. Excitingly, many eagle rays have been spotted around this site.

Marine Life

🤿 Snorkelling Excursions – In total during August, 25 guests joined for our Maldivian Journey snorkelling, averaging 6 guests per trip for 66 minutes’ duration. We also conducted two Reef Snorkelling trips and four Snorkelling Safaris. We were pleased to sight 2 green turtles and 1 hawksbill at the dive centre restoration site, plus juvenile nurse sharks visited both the blue hole & water villas sites.

🐬 Dolphin Cruises – we conducted 6 dolphin cruises this month, with multiple spinner dolphins sighted on every trip, much to the delight of our excited guests!

🎙️ Marine Talks – A total of 53 guests attended marine talks, with an average duration of 37 minutes. An additional four talks were delivered for staff training purposes.

Marine Education & Awareness Activities

♻️ EcoSort Challenge – activities are going well, with a total of 45 guests attending this month, for an average duration of 44 minutes.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Kids Club Field Trip – 40 children joined for marine field trips, lasting an average of 44 minutes each. Many thanks to invaluable assistance from our resort colleagues at the Dive Centre.

▶️ Social Media activities during August included 5 new posts, 13 stories and 9 reels. Our highest reaching post (~25k accounts) was created to increase awareness to the possible reintroduction of long-line fishing in the Maldives. Many organisations around the Maldives came together in a national campaign, which seems to have helped encourage the Maldivian Government to officially pause the re-introduction of long-line fishing!
This month, our Reefscapers teams came together virtually, to discuss our social media strategies for the rest of the year, and to share a new social media planner for improved structure and collaboration.

Sheraton Full Moon

During September, we built 19 new coral frames, kindly sponsored by guests (6), the Resort (6), and online (7), which in total added more than 800 new coral fragments to the reef. In addition, we monitored (cleaned, repaired, photographed) a total of 18 existing coral frames, mainly at the Dive Centre site, and we are continuing to harvest coral fragments from the dive centre pyramids as we clear away the macroalgae.

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

Coral Bleaching and Recovery

Photo sequence of Reefscapers coral frame #SH327 (from April to Sept 2024), depicting initial coral paling in a healthy Reefscapers frame (1st photo, taken 4th April). Ocean temperatures remained high (May), and the coral polyps continued to eject their symbiotic zooxanthellae, leading to full coral bleaching.
As ocean temperatures returned to the normal range, some of the coral colonies were able to re-uptake zooxanthellae and regain a healthy colouration (late June-July onwards). The coral frame is now partially recovered, with healthy coral colonies sitting alongside dead colonies that have become overgrown with algae (26th September).
Note the variety of fish clearly visible throughout the photo sequence; our Reefscapers coral frames provide a micro-habitat for a whole variety of marine life, even when bleached or dead.

Coral Propagation Sites

Although many coral colonies have died, recovery from bleaching is being increasingly observed, both on our frames and the natural reefs.

• Blue Hole – Frames at this site are being buried in sand, so we have been lifting them via freediving. We plan to do a more thorough maintenance via scuba diving in October. Coral mortality rates have stayed at ~70%.
• Water Villas – Maintenance continues, with many frames in the third line being cleared after the coral bleaching. Retransplanted frames at this site are showing signs of stress, so we are holding off until we see improvements. Mortality rates remain at ~80%.
• Dive Centre –  Many scuba maintenance dives have been carried out to control macroalgae growth, mainly affecting Acropora muricata and A. aspera on the lower bars of the pyramids. We have been fragmenting these colonies to retransplant our coral frames. Mortality is approximately 60%.
• Boat Garden – The Boat Garden is still our current planting site with any new frames being added here. Tag cleaning and monitoring has been done.

Marine Life

🤿 Snorkelling Excursions – In total this month, 23 guests joined for our Maldivian Journey snorkelling, averaging 6 guests per trip for 54 minutes’ duration. We received a lot of positive feedback (below) from guests regarding the coral site and snorkelling. We also conducted 5 Snorkelling Safaris. This month at the Dive Centre restoration site, we had a rare sighting of a long-horned pygmy devil ray (Mobula eregoodootenkee), and a curious octopus at our Blue Hole site.

🐬 Dolphin Cruises – we conducted 5 dolphin cruises this month, with multiple spinner dolphins sighted on most trips, along with a small pod of bottlenose dolphins sighted very close to Furanafushi island.

🎙️ Marine Talks – A total of 57 guests attended 12 marine talks, with an average duration of 46 minutes.

Marine Education & Awareness Activities

♻️ EcoSort Challenge – EcoSort challenge was quieter this month. We had a total of 19 guests attend over the month with an average of 5. This is down 25 guests from last month. The average duration was 48 minutes. We continue to create ideas to improve this activity going forward.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Kids Club Field Trip – We had 13 kids join the marine field trip this month which is a decrease of 27 from August. August was a particular busy month so these numbers are not alarming. The average number of guests for this activity was 4 and a duration of 40 minutes.

📱 Social Media Content shared during September included 1 post, 14 stories and 10 reels. Our most popular post (50k reach, 1800 likes) was a collaborative reel between Reefscapers and Four Seasons Resorts Maldives, showcasing the rescue and release of a turtle.

Sheraton Full Moon

This month, we built 14 new coral frames, which in total added almost 600 new coral fragments to the reef. We were delighted to plant our 700th frame kindly sponsored by ProShot & Tidal Sports. We monitored (cleaned, repaired, photographed) a total of 48 existing coral frames, and uploaded the photos to our website for our sponsors.

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

Coral Propagation Sites

Although many coral colonies have died, recovery from bleaching is being increasingly observed, both on our frames and the natural reefs.

• Blue Hole – Frames are being buried by the seasonally shifting sands around the island; we have been lifting some of them, but a lot more work needs to be done here in the coming weeks.
• Water Villas – Maintenance work is continuing, and with a lot of extra help from our resort colleagues, all the bleached/dead frames in the third line have been cleaned and are ready to be replanted. We are not focusing on recycling as new fragments are bleaching more at this site.
• Dive Centre –  We continue to fragment the Acropora muricata and A. aspera at the bottom of the pyramids which suffered from macroalgae growth, but is otherwise healthy. These are now supporting the planting of new coral frames and also recycled frames..
• Boat Garden – This site has filled up very quickly with our new post-bleaching frames. We have reached capacity, and plan to expand area in November-December.

Coral Research

Coral Resilience Experiment – We aim to test some of our most resilient corals, survivors of the harsh conditions of the 2024 bleaching event. Five frames were recycled for testing; six species of coral fragments were harvested from the Blue Hole, fragmented further and attached to the five frames. The frames were photographed and located to their designated sites and various depths.

Coral Spawning – we scheduled several night dives around the full moon of 17 October, looking for signs of coral spawning at our Dive Centre site. We successfully observed (and photographed) spawning in 21 separate colonies of Acropora secale. Katelyn’s excellent night photos (below) show the mature coral gametes ‘bundling’, and then releasing into the water column.

Marine Life

🤿 Snorkelling Excursions – In total, 44 guests joined for the Maldivian Journey snorkelling activity this month, averaging 15 guests per trip, and lasting 68 minutes. We also joined 4 Snorkelling Safaris, and conducted 5 additional one-on-one sessions for guests. Megafauna sightings included Bottlenose and Spinner dolphins, sea turtles, and a rare sighting of a marbled stingray during one of our night dives. A nurse shark was spotted beneath our coral pyramids that had unfortunately become entangled in a rope, likely for quite some time (photo, below). Thankfully, our resort colleagues were able to successfully remove the rope.

🐬 Dolphin Cruises – Two dolphin cruises were conducted, and the Spinner dolphins put on quite a show for us!

🎙️ Marine Talks – A total of 66 guests attended marine talks this month on 18 separate days, averaging 38 minutes’ duration.

Marine Education & Awareness Activities

♻️ EcoSort Challenge – much busier this month, with a total of 40 guests enjoying the activity, averaging 55 minutes duration.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Kids Club Field Trip – We had 48 children join the marine field trips, averaging 39 minutes duation.

📱 Social Media – Content shared during October included 5 posts, 55 stories and 7 reels. The post with the highest reach was a reel showcasing how we outplant our coral frames here at the Sheraton, with 20k plays and ~900 likes. We also shared our “Meet the Team” posts and stories, offering a glimpse into the daily life of a marine biologist here at the Sheraton.
The total accounts reached for the month was 122k (+100% compared to the September); engagement increased 117%, and new followers went up by 360 to take our total following to well over 34k.

🪸 Hosted Visits – We welcomed VIP guests this month, guided them snorkelling around the coral restoration site, and built our 700th frame with them.

Sheraton Full Moon

This month, we built 9 new coral frames, which in total added 375 new coral fragments to the reef. We monitored (cleaned, repaired, photographed) a total of 34 existing coral frames across all our sites, and uploaded the photos to our website for our kind sponsors.

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

Coral Propagation Sites

• Blue Hole – We continue to lift frames at his site, and note any frames with missing tags.
• Water Villas – This site was largely avoided during November, due to nesting triggerfish which are known to be aggressive towards passing snorkellers!
• Dive Centre – Removal of dead corals post-bleaching continues on our large pyramid structures. We have made good progress with the branching corals at the bottom of the pyramids, replacing any coral fragments eaten by fish and snails. We remove any marine debris that we encounter, including fishing hooks/lines, plus some construction sacks that drifted into the lagoon and had become wrapped around coral frames.
• Boat Garden – Maintenance dives were completed to clean and monitor frames, and we have started to expand the width of this site.

Coral Spawning Research

🗓️ 1 November New Moon – we scheduled our night diving at the Dive Centre site to monitor for coral spawning around the period of November’s New Moon. No spawning was observed, and we did not see signs of mature gamete bundling.
🗓️ 15 November Full Moon – this time, we successfully observed coral spawning in 31 separate coral colonies over 2 consecutive nights.

Marine Life

🤿 Snorkelling Excursions – In total, 21 guests joined for the Maldivian Journey snorkelling activity this month, with 4 guests per trip averaging 46 minutes duration. We also joined 7 Snorkelling Safari excursions, visiting Kurumba House Reef and Stingray Point, and conducted 4 private snorkelling sessions.
We enjoyed increased turtle sightings at the sea grass site, and spotted marbled stingrays and nurse sharks on our night dives.

🐬 Dolphin Cruises – Three dolphin cruises were attended, although we had to schedule around our coral spawning night diving research.

🎙️ Marine Talks – A total of 59 guests attended 13 talks, averaging 38 minutes duration. We also held an extra private marine talk upon request.

Marine Education & Awareness Activities

♻️ EcoSort Challenge – 30 guests enjoyed our environmental activity, spending an average of 54 minutes learning about recycling and consumption.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Kids Club Field Trip – 12 children joined our marine field trips, averaging 4 people and 27 minutes duration.

📱 Social Media – our best performing collaborative instagram reel featured aerial drone footage of a manta ray, clocking up 30k plays. Our new “Meet the Team” feature also proved popular, helping our Instagram account to reach 113k viewers this month and gain +200 new followers.

🪸 Hosted Visits – This month, we hosted five FAM trips, and welcomed Reefscapers colleagues from other centres. Clarisse (marine intern) joined us from Kuda Huraa for a few days, and proved a great help with scuba maintenance dives and monitoring for coral spawning. Reefscapers directors Thomas and Marie met with the new Sheraton management to discuss activities, marketing, and contracts. Additionally, Katelyn spent a few days at our sister resort St Regis, to cover for Hazel’s vacation.
We also hosted hospitality students from Thoddoo school, who enjoyed a marine presentation, learning about coral restoration and sustainability initiatives.

Sheraton Full Moon

This month, we built 10 new coral frames, which in total added 414 new coral fragments to the reef. We ended the year planting frame SH729. We also monitored (cleaned, repaired, photographed) a total of 63 existing coral frames across all our sites, and uploaded the photos to our website for our kind sponsors.

During 2024, we planted a total of 162 frames (7,316 fragments); this excludes recycled frames after the bleaching event.

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

Coral Propagation Sites

• Blue Hole & Water Villas – Recycling of frames was low this month due to a number of large titan triggerfish nesting in the area – they were acting very territorial and can be aggressive towards snorkellers.
• Boat Garden – Two maintenance dives were completed to clean and monitor frames. We have also planted some of the dive centre Acropora muricata at this site to see how it grows.
• Gili’s – All frames continue to do very well, needing very little maintenance. Monitoring will continue into Jan-Feb.
• Dive Centre – A total of 14 scuba maintenance dives were carried out this month (plus 2 at eagle ray rock). The dive centre continues to remain our focal point of restoration since the bleaching this year. A lot of work has been completed, removing dead coral, replanting new coral fragments, recycling frames, cleaning the macroalgae growing on Acropora muricata, and removing corallivorous species from both frames and pyramids.

 Predation

A total of 146 Drupella snails and one cushion star were removed in December. From August to December this year, we have removed two Crown of Thorns, 297 Drupella and the one cushion star form our coral structures.

Coral Spawning Research

🗓️ New Moon (1 Dec): we conducted night dives at the Dive Centre over this period, to monitor for coral spawning. No spawning was observed.
🗓️ Full Moon (15 Dec): again, we conducted night dives at the Dive Centre over this period. We had already completed gamete checks, and we were confident that colonies of Acropora tenuis contained pigmented eggs. Sure enough, a series of ‘loss-of-gamete’ checks confirmed spawning had occurred in 3 colonies of A.tenuis.

Marine Life

🤿 Snorkelling Excursions – 6 ‘Snorkelling Safaris’ were joined this month, and we conducted 12 private snorkelling sessions. 48 guests joined us for the ‘Maldivian Journey’ this month, averaging 69 minutes duration. Megafauna sightings included hawksbill turtles and stingrays at the dive centre.

🐬 Dolphin Cruises – 5 dolphin cruises were attended, and we sighted spinner dolphins on each trip.

🎙️ Marine Talks – A total of 28 guests attended marine talks this month over 8 talks, lasting 37 minutes on average.

Marine Education & Awareness Activities

♻️ EcoSort Challenge – 28 guests enjoyed our educational awareness game this month, averaging 48 minutes duration.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Kids Club Field Trip – We had 17 children join the marine field trip, averaging 38 minutes. The families over the festive period were very interested in our coral adoption programme.

🪸 Hosted Visits – This month, we hosted 3 FAM trips. New sign boards have been created by the carpentry team, to help direct guests towards our marine biology department and the coral garden.

📱 Social Media – this month we shared 5 posts, 36 stories and 9 reels, reaching a total of 92k accounts. A collaborative reel with Four Seasons Maldives showcased a day in the life of a marine biologist at Landaa Giraavaru, and was our top performer with 17k reach and 26k plays (and counting).

During 2024, the Reefscapers Instagram account gained over 4,000 followers, ending the year on 35,100 followers. The Sheraton team played a large role in this growth, creating engaging content as well as creating/organising our popular ‘meet the team’ series of posts. Multiple reels have been viewed over 100k times, and we hope to continue gaining followers in 2025.