Reef diving reveals a stark contrast between algae-damaged and living coral

After a drift dive with a friend named Isla, Lauren Landers Sailing describes drifting from the inside to the outside of the reef. The inside section was noticeably dead, covered in algae that she describes as invasive. Once algae takes hold on coral, the coral cannot regrow after it. The outside of the reef, by contrast, had living coral, though the dive was deep and somewhat sparse in marine life relative to what they had hoped to find. There were fish present, but overall the dive did not deliver the abundance they were expecting. Humpback whales were still in the area, but swimmers were not permitted to enter the water independently to approach them, leaving only the option of watching from the boat at a distance.