Hurawalhi Maldives Enters 2021 Protecting a National Treasure, Unmatched Natural Beauty

Monday 25th of January 2021

After setting standards in luxury hospitality, the Hurawalhi Maldives is determined to earn a name in coral reef preservation as well. The resort, blessed with incredible reefs that drags ocean lovers to the island, not only aim to protect the coral, but also manage projects to nurture them. As such, Hurawalhi kickstarts 2021 with a new project, the Coral Tree Project.

The Coral Line project was set up in 2019 with coral fragments collected around 5.8 Undersea Restaurant, the world’s largest all-glass undersea restaurant that lies 5.8 meters below Hurawalhi Maldives. After 18 months, the fragments that had an average size of 4.3cm had reached an average size of 11.2cm. When you walk down to the restaurant by stairs, you can see the coral frames through the second window.

In December 2020 began a new coral nursery project in the form of a coral tree. PVC pipe was used to construct a tree-like structure, anchored at the bottom and held upright with a floatation device. The ‘tree’ holds 100 coral fragments. The marine biologists collected broken off coral fragments from the reef surrounding Hurawalhi (these fragments are also known as ‘Corals of Opportunity’). The fragments, of an average size of 3.5cm, were tied to fishing line and attached to the arms of the tree. Hurawalhi hopes to transplant the fragments to the reef in time for Christmas 2021.