The reef of Villingili Island, just a few minutes away from Malé, has suffered damage from reclamation, dredging and harbor construction. It took another hit this year when warmer ocean temperatures, caused by the El Nino, killed a majority of its coral. On a recent dive, I found a graveyard on the island’s reef slope. A slimy layer of brown green algae covered the dead corals, while the few that still held out were bleached white. Some had startling spots of purple and pink, indicating a former more colorful appearance.

When we surfaced, my guide, veteran diver Hussain ‘Sendi’ Rasheed, said: “I take tourists out on dives almost everyday. I can tell you this is happening across the Maldives.”

The government, however, has downplayed the extent of bleaching, saying the onset of the rainy season would lead to a fall in temperatures, allowing stressed reefs to recover.

But environmentalists and divers doubt this. Reef resilience has been affected by activities such as  large scale dredging and land reclamation projects, as well as practices such as sand pumping at resorts, they say.