Our vessel was unusually quiet, as each of us were assessing the situation, from trying to remember the French we’d been practicing, to considering how significant the current was going to be at depth. We were heading to a site called ‘Vallee des Gorgones’ in Île des Pins, translated quite easily to ‘Valley of the Gorgons’ in Isle of Pines in New Caledonia.

The Isle of Pines group is a collection of around 15 small islands and inlets surrounded by reefs, extending from the shallows to deep depths. The French territory of New Caledonia is an island nation off the east coast of Australia, deemed the largest lagoon on the planet. Known for its biodiversity and unique plant life to scientists and researchers, it was now regarded as a significant drift dive destination to us scuba divers.

Our longtime friends at the Resilient Reefs Initiative (RRI), a global partnership through the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, put us on to this place. The initiative supports World Heritage Reefs, and the communities that depend on them, to adapt to climate change and a combination of local threats. The aim for the Edges of Earth team was to survey key sites of the island group, see the reef systems firsthand, and to learn from the Kanak people, who have safeguarded this land and sea for generations. Of course, if we could stop ourselves from flying past the coral and marine species we were there to document in the first place.

A large effort for RRI is connecting local stakeholders with new methods and tools which can be adapted to the local context, and will help coral reef managers and communities to protect their reefs and coastal ecosystems. Participatory monitoring, i.e. manual documenting and surveying of reefs by everyday citizens, helps explain the state of New Caledonia’s systems, including locating and counting coral-eating ‘Crown of Thorns’ starfish, which can have devastating effects in some circumstances.