Another Giant Coral from the Maldives

Whilst exploring Faafu Atoll, the MaRHE Center team landed on an uninhabited island and came across this huge Heliopora coerulea. Athough Blue Coral are actually Octocorals, they are nonetheless reef-building organisms, largely contributing to the fundation of this ecosystem. Measuring 9m in length is separated by less than a mt from a second 7m long Heliopora. Were they previously a single huge GIANT? This is one of the questions our future studies would like to solve.

This research is being conducted under the permit NRP2023/79 by Ministry of Fisheries and Ocean Resources and by EPA permit PA/2023/PAR-1