It is not all about Disney’s Moana or Pixar’s Finding Nemo when it comes to the Maldives. Indeed, the Maldives is beyond its bright colours underwater, like the residents living on the land – the Maldive reef is home to bright cities underwater.

Yes, a few underwater suites and restaurants are open in the Maldives. A cabinet meeting of the government was held alongside the President in 2008, underwater to support the 350 Movement against Climate Change. These facts aside, the Maldivian reefs are home to over an 1100 marine species including rare findings of Dolphins, Whales, Sharks, Turtles and Planktons. As busy schools swim over the vibrant hues of the reefs, it is then you can only witness the beautiful Metropolis submerged in the Maldive Seas.

One of the most devastating results of climate change has been the rise of sea levels that can make the Maldives islands more than uninhabitable as it may no longer cease to exist. However, climate change is already here and has been affecting the islands and many coastal cities. The rise of global temperature and the excessive plastic pollution has been destroying the coral reefs, and once you destroy the homes you destroy those who live in them. It has yet to be measured on how many species have gone-extinct or become close to extinction in the Maldive reef, but it is fact that numbers are declining. While all the rarely visited species are entirely endangered such as all types of sea turtles, whale sharks, manta rays and dolphins, many local organizations have built “coral farms” to grow corals and to later integrate it to the reef.

In the last ARVACA Travel Maldives issue, a founder of Save the Beach Maldives said: “The Maldivian coral reefs are so damaged, that it is unrecognizable from the past seven years”. Indeed we fear natural disasters, aliens and monsters destroying our cities from the movies. To understand the irony that we became those aliens who have begun destroying the underwater cities is just unfathomable.