Difficulty: Challenger (Level 2)
Beneath Vanuatu’s blue waters, near broken coral, a moray eel peers from a plant’s branches. Not far off, a yellow feathered sea lily sways and a turtle grazes on algae. These flickers of life hint at a slow but hopeful recovery for the South Pacific island nation’s coral reefs.
For the past decade, the country has seen many punishing blows, from repeated cyclones to a 7.3-magnitude earthquake in 2024.
Still, some shallows are bouncing back. Clownfish take refuge in anemones. Corals have begun to root themselves to the reef again. But in this disaster-prone region, recovery is fragile.
“We’re seeing new corals ... but do they get a chance to actually grow before another insult comes and damages them?” said Christina Shaw, CEO of the Vanuatu Environmental Science Society, a local NGO.
