Coral Reefs

Coral reefs are the architecture of warm-water diving. Hard corals build the reef structure (millennia of skeletons); soft corals add colour (yellows, purples, oranges); sponges, anemones and crinoids fill the gaps. Every other reef creature lives because of them.

For colour: Indonesia's Raja Ampat (the richest reef biodiversity on Earth, with 75% of all known coral species), Komodo and Bali. For scale and accessibility: Maldives atolls, Andaman, Phuket. For dramatic walls: Red Sea, Sipadan, Bunaken.

Climate change has driven four global bleaching events since 1998. The ongoing 2023–25 event alone has affected roughly 84% of the world's reef area (NOAA/ICRI). Diving the surviving healthy reefs, and supporting reef-positive operators, is one of the few ways travellers can directly fund conservation.