The remainder could be lost by the end of the century if reef conservation efforts don’t score some swift victories. To conserve anything, first you need to know where it is, and how much you have left.
In the middle of the Indian Ocean lies some of the last coral reef wilderness on Earth. The Chagos Archipelago, a collection of atolls, including Earth s largest - the Great Chagos Bank- is home to reefs that have been largely undisturbed by humans for the last 50 years. Some estimates indicate the Chagos Archipelago may contain more than half of the healthy coral reefs remaining in the entire Indian Ocean. These reefs are protected both by their remote location, and in one of the world s largest no-take marine reserves the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) marine protected area.
In 2015, scientists at the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation (KSLOF) came to the Chagos Archipelago to assess the status of the reefs. Over the course of two months at sea, an international team of scientists conducted thousands of surveys of the benthic and reef fish communities at over 100 locations across the archipelago. This research was conducted as part of the Foundation s Global Reef Ex