Map the Giants: preliminary results in locating the largest coral colonies in the Maldives

Coral reefs are suffering from both natural and anthropogenic stressors which are posing threats to the survival of countries that completely rely on them for their ecosystem services, such as the Republic of Maldives. In the last years, Maldivian reefs have undergone severe mass bleaching such as the 2016 event which impacted 73% of the corals. This couples with threats posed by corallivore outbreaks, coral diseases, human activities, and pollution. In this context, billions of coral colonies, potentially including the most enigmatic, resistant, and ancient ones—colonies over 5m, likely centennial—such as the giant corals, are at risk. These individuals hold unique information from biological, genetic, and paleoclimatic perspectives, having withstood environmental perturbations. They might hold the key to coral reef resilience. We present preliminary findings of giant coral colonies in the Maldives, located with the assistance of citizen scientists. The data provided was collected based on two levels of complexity, dependent on participants' level of expertise. Colonies have been identified across multiple atolls, with a seemingly higher abundance in the southern part of the archipelago. As expected, Porites sp. is the most common genus identified, with colonies exhibiting various growth forms, often found on slopes of channels and reaching lengths of over 10 m. The objective of this work is to raise awareness about the importance and fragility of these organisms, moreover to provide the Maldivian government with a map of potentially sensitive areas worthy of protection. Additionally, the data serve as the foundation for future studies by experts in different fields.