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Coral reefs support 25% of all ocean species yet cover less than 1% of the ocean floor. They are essential not only for marine life but for people too, protecting coastlines, sustaining communities, and functioning as the ocean’s equivalent of rainforests for their extraordinary biodiversity.

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But they’re in crisis. Over 80% of the world’s reefs have already been affected by bleaching, and half have disappeared in just three decades. Time is running out, but there is hope.

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Hope Reef, the world’s largest coral restoration project, sits off the coast of Indonesia. Using innovative “Reef Stars”, steel structures that coral fragments are attached to, the reef is regrowing at remarkable speed. Since its launch in 2021, coral cover has surged from 2% to over 82%, and fish populations have risen by 300%.

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Before restoration began in 2019, this seafloor was silent, smothered in shifting grey rubble. Today, it bursts with colour and life.

I was commissioned by Mars Sustainable Solutions and Ocean Culture Life to document the extraordinary innovation behind Hope Reef,  from the restoration work to the people driving it forward. I was also asked to photograph NASA astronaut Nicole Stott as she experienced this thriving reef firsthand, a place she once viewed from space.

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