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.
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.
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.
