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This video was made in December 2022 during a short vacation I spent on Angaaga island; I must say that the weather was not what I wanted and therefore, not being able to do scuba diving with aqualung, I dedicated myself to snorkelling in the coral reef that surrounded the island. The small island of Angaga is located in the center of Alifu Dhaalu Atoll, in the southern part of Ari Atoll. This small island has been used exclusively as a tourist resort for those who intend to spend a holiday in the Maldives. maldive atollo alifu dhaalu
The internal connections between the capital Malé and the atolls of the archipelago are guaranteed by fast boats and the most comfortable seaplanes which are based near the international airport. I arrived on the small island with a seaplane already included in the cost of the holiday. Many islands of the Maldivian archipelago have had the same fate as Angaaga, that is, they are uninhabited islands that have been transformed into accommodation facilities for spending holidays in a particularly beautiful sea. maldive atollo alifu dhaalu
The Maldives as everyone knows are to be considered a true naturalistic paradise; however it is necessary to make some considerations on events that have occurred in the last 25 years and which have caused serious damage to the ecosystems of the coral reefs. The alarm of scientists on the warming of the oceans is recent. Here more than any other part there is an increase in temperatures especially in the areas that were affected by the meteorological phenomenon of El Niño, which occurred in 1998, which led to the bleaching and loss of 90% of the corals.
After the tsunami of the Indian Ocean and the Indo-Asian plate of 26 December 2004 was one of the most catastrophic natural disasters of the modern era which caused hundreds of thousands of deaths both directly with the earthquake and through the consequent tsunami which occurred with a series of anomalous waves up to fifteen meters high which hit vast coastal areas of the Asian area in the form of gigantic tsunamis between fifteen minutes and ten hours following the earthquake. In the Maldives, the tsunami also caused the devastation of the more superficial coral reefs.
The problems described they can be seen in the film made during the holiday. We can in fact notice that in one part of the island there are dead or suffering corals while in the other part we can see reef corals that are recovering their beauty. Personally I am convinced that the deterioration of the coral reefs is also due, in addition to the causes already described above, also to an excessive tourist exploitation of the atolls and to other human activities such as trawling and the anchorages of boats and ships. Finally, the capture of fish and other organisms to be allocated to marine aquariums throughout the world.
