Mauritius Coral Reefs: What’s Left, and How They’re Being Protected

In March 2025, 80% of coral colonies in Mauritian waters bleached during a marine heatwave that pushed sea surface temperatures to 31°C, according to Pierre Edgard Daniel Marie, director of the Mauritius Oceanography Institute (MOI). It’s not an isolated accident: it’s the latest in a series of bleaching events dating back to 1998, one that pushed Mauritian authorities to overhaul their coral restoration approach in 2025.

Why coral bleaches

Coral bleaching happens when coral expels the symbiotic algae (zooxanthellae) that give it both its colour and most of its food. The main trigger is an abnormal rise in sea surface temperature, often linked to an El Niño event, according to the Mauritius Oceanography Institute.

The first recorded bleaching event in Mauritius dates back to 1998, with a loss of more than 10% of the island’s live coral cover. Between 2001 and 2016, a series of events ranging from mild to massive wiped out between 2% and 56% of live coral depending on the lagoon. In 2019, MOI surveys at its permanent monitoring stations (Ile aux Bénitiers, La Gaulette, Grande Rivière Sud-Est, Le Morne, Flic en Flac) found more than 75% of colonies partially or fully bleached, with the genus Acropora hit hardest (89%); at Ile aux Bénitiers and Flic en Flac, the rate topped 80%. The 2023-2025 episode reached 80% island-wide in March 2025.

Where coral is protected: the marine parks

Two areas of the lagoon have held marine park status since October 1997 as national parks, confirmed as marine parks in June 2000: Blue Bay Marine Park, 353 hectares on the southeast coast between Pointe Corps de Garde and Pointe Vacoas, also designated a Ramsar site on 31 January 2008; and Balaclava Marine Park, 485 hectares on the north coast in the Pamplemousses district, combining coral reef, sandy beach and salt marsh. Both are managed by the Marine Conservation Division of the Ministry of Blue Economy, which maintains coral nurseries in each to help regenerate degraded areas.

At Blue Bay, mooring buoys have been installed to stop boat anchors from damaging the reef, and around fifteen licensed operators run glass-bottom boat trips and guided snorkeling outings.

What the law bans

The Fisheries Act 2023, which now governs marine conservation in Mauritius, bans in its Section 20 the cutting, removal, relocation, transplanting or damaging in any way of coral without authorisation, alongside the same protection for mangroves and seagrass. Breaching this provision is a criminal offence, rated Level 5 on the Act’s fine schedule: a maximum fine of 50 million rupees and up to 10 years’ imprisonment, that ceiling being the legal maximum rather than a penalty routinely applied. The Act also bans possessing, selling or exporting native coral, dead or alive, without specific authorisation.

Restoration projects under way

Since 2017, the MOI and the Albion Fisheries Research Centre have trained fishers and coastal residents in coral farming under a community project, first at Quatre Sœurs, La Gaulette, Bel Ombre and Grand Gaube, then extended to Le Morne, Poudre d’Or and Bambous Virieux with $70,000 in funding from the UN Environment Programme’s WIOSAP fund. A hundred and ten participants (85% men, 15% women) were trained to set up and maintain rope coral nurseries, before transplanting the coral to degraded sites at Albion, Flic en Flac and Trou aux Biches.

At Blue Bay, the NGO Eco-Sud has run its Blue Lagoon programme since 2010, stepped up in 2020 with support from the Adaptation Fund and UNDP, alongside the MOI and Albion Fisheries Research Centre: the goal is to restore 1.6 hectares of reef between Blue Bay and Grand Port, with monitoring at Trou Capitaine and Pointe d’Esny, and 250 people trained in coral propagation and monitoring techniques.

On the north coast, Reef Conservation, based in Pereybère, set up the island’s first Voluntary Marine Conservation Area at Roches Noires in 2011, followed by a second at Anse-La-Raie in 2014. On the west coast, Coral Garden Conservation, active since 2015, runs the “Reviving Le Morne” initiative and manages a voluntary conservation zone at Saint-Félix, monitored with underwater drones.

In May 2025, the Ministry of Blue Economy suspended coral fragmentation propagation after an audit found survival rates of only 0-10%, occasionally reaching 30%, in nurseries. Official strategy is now shifting toward sexual coral reproduction, seen as more resilient: the Odysseo Foundation, with the international organisation Secore International, launched a three-year project using this method in 2024 from its oceanarium laboratory.

How to see coral without damaging it

Coral touched or stepped on dies within weeks, even without breaking its structure. In the lagoon, the rule is simple: keep your distance, never put a foot or a fin on a colony, don’t feed the fish so as not to disrupt the reef’s ecosystem, and choose a sunscreen free of oxybenzone and octinoxate, two chemical filters already identified as harmful to coral. In the Blue Bay and Balaclava marine parks, booking with a licensed operator remains the best guarantee that the outing respects sensitive reef areas. For boat owners, the mooring rules covered in our guide to boat ownership in Mauritius apply directly to coral protection: a badly dropped anchor destroys in seconds what a nursery takes years to rebuild.

Sources and verification

• Mauritius Oceanography Institute — Current Coral Bleaching in Mauritius (2019)
• Mauritius Oceanography Institute — MOI’s ongoing reef restoration initiatives
• Ministry of Blue Economy — Marine Conservation Division
• Mauritius National Assembly — The Fisheries Act 2023 (official text)
• Eco-Sud — Coral Restoration Project
• Aparté — Coral protection in Mauritius: the initiatives making a difference
• Mongabay — Mauritius rethinks coral restoration as reefs suffer from another mass bleaching