[W]e’ve been busy behind the scenes, making improvements to our collection of coral frame photographs, and today we launch our brand new page (here) !
We now have a total of 3,000 coral frames transplanted into the shallow lagoons surrounding Kuda Huraa and Landaa Giraavaru. Amazingly, this amounts to more than 40,000 individual photographs taken over the years! We take the first photo when the coral fragments have been attached and the frame is lowered into position in the lagoon; we then take new photos every six months to document the gradual coral growth and branching. After just two to three years, our frames flourish into attractive homes for myriads of assorted fish and marine creatures that make a colourful addition to our coral gardens.
Popular with our snorkelling guests, the new corals quickly become incorporated into their natural environment, working with and extending the existing ecosystem to promote increased coral reproduction around the whole lagoon, to the reef edge and beyond. And of course this is not just a decorative feature – all 1200 Maldivian islands consist almost entirely of corals and coral sand, so our reef propagation program is actually helping to strengthen the natural island defences against waves and storms throughout the monsoon season.
So What Changes Have Been Made?
Please Enter Your Details – The first difference you will see is that we have replaced the frame tag “dropdown” list with a simple search box, making things easier, especially on mobile devices. So now you can enter your frame number specifically as “KH0345”, or more simply as “345” which shows the results for both the LG (Landaa Giraavaru) and the KH (Kuda Huraa) frames.
Whilst the frame number is certainly the best method of searching, if you can’t remember it or don’t have it to hand, you can also enter your name or email address, and this will show the relevant results.
[Y]ou will see the same set of photos of your frame as before – these are the “Front” view of the frame (the side with the name tag). But we have now expanded this to include three other views (where available) – Left, Right and Back – so you can see how your frame has been growing over time from all four sides.
Once you have looked at the photographs from one view, simply click Try a Different Search to select a different view (or search for another frame). You can hover over a thumbnail to check the date the source photo was taken, and click on it for an expanded view where you can then navigate left and right to move between photos, and see your frame maturing.
[W]e are also gradually adding GPS co-ordinates for all of our coral frames, so you can see their location in the lagoon. Collecting and collating this data for all our frames is a huge task, but one that we hope to complete in the near future. If you see the word ‘map’ as a blue link, you can now click this to see your frame’s location in the lagoon, plotted using the exact GPS co-ordinates and displayed using Google Maps.
To see the new page in action, simply head over to the same link as before – Coral Frame Collection – also accessible via the Reefscapers dropdown menu (above) or the Reefscapers logo on the home page. We hope you enjoy using our new page, and watching your coral frame flourish over the months and years – thank you again for your support and continued interest in our work.
Locations of our coral frames at Landaa Giraavaru, plotted from GPS coordinates
Mature coral frames at 3 years old (Landaa Giraavaru)
