A rare look at the exotic coral reef of Bazaruto Island, Mozambique

As aquarists, we tend to spend a lot of time thinking and discussing the coral reefs where our aquarium marine life originates from. Places like Bali, Australia, Maldives, the Red Sea and their habitats are extremely well documented but there are other equally neat eco-regions of the world which are very well worthy of our attention.

We’d like to bring your attention to a very remote part of the west Indian Ocean, Bazaruto Island, Mozambique which is nestled between Madagascar and the east coast of Africa. The Bazaruto Archipelago of Mozambique was recently voted as one of the top 30 islands in the world to visit by readers of Conde Nast Traveler and this gorgeous underwater video clearly shows why from a diver’s point of view.

chromis-fieldi-bazaruto-mozambique — Bazaruto’s Two Mile Reef is teeming with the recenlty described Chromis fieldi

This rare look at the underwater marine life of Bazaruto Island’s Two Mile Reef comes to us from Anantara Hotel‘s resident Dive Master Nicole Helgason and it shows a unique reef structure quite unlike what we expect to see elsewhere in the world. Of course this eco-region has its fair share of megafauna like whales, rays, sharks and otherwise large fish but it’s the reef builders and the critters that live in it that really interests us as divers and reefers.

Ms. Helgason’s video clearly shows an environment that is dominated by plating and tabling Acropora – even the ‘staghorn’ acropora have a more horizontal tendency and this creates a unique reef matrix. The video also illustrates an abundance of the Indian Ocean variant of the chocolate-dip Chromis fieldi which was recently split from its Red Sea counterpart, C. dimidiata.

bazaruto-coral-reef-restoration — The dive staff of the Bazaruto Anantara hotel working to build coral reefs of their own.

Thankfully it warms our coral-lovin’ hearts to learn that the value of corals and coral reefs is well appreciated by the Anantara Hotel which has taken it upon itself to build out coral reef structures of its own. Although they are in their early stages of building out these oasis of coral, we are eager to see them progress and hopefully in time they’ll begin to approach the expansive reef scenes pictured in this video.

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Jake Adams

Jake Adams has been an avid marine aquarist since the mid 90s and has worked in the retail side of the marine aquarium trade for more than ten years. He has a bachelor’s degree in Marine Science and has been the managing editor of ReefBuilders.com since 2008. Jake is interested in every facet of the marine aquarium hobby from the concepts to the technology, rare fish to exotic corals, and his interests are well documented through a very prolific career of speaking to reef clubs and marine aquarium events, and writing articles for aquarium publications across the globe. His primary interest is in corals which Jake pursues in the aquarium hobby as well as diving the coral reefs of the world.