An underwater photo competition will be held to commemorate the Maldives’ Golden Year of Tourism in collaboration with Ocean Geographic and the Maldives Alliance of Dive Operators (MADO).

This extraordinarily gorgeous archipelago, which consists of 1,192 islands arranged into 26 naturally occurring coral atolls, is known for having some of the world’s most exquisite coral reefs.

Ocean Geographic is funding a health assessment picture competition to honor Maldives’ 50^th Golden Jubilee Year in tourism to raise awareness of this Global Heritage and significant accomplishments of the Maldives.

The 50 Best Maldives Sites will be the subject of a one-day picture shoot-out on September 28, 2022, from 1730 hours, at 50 of the country’s most iconic dive sites.

The goal is to preserve the special underwater sanctuary that the Maldives has to offer. The main goal of this event is to become an annual photo competition that will serve as a yearly health check of the Maldives reefs and serve as a platform for further conservation and sustainability projects in the future, even if it was initially designed to highlight the Golden Jubilee Year.

The registration of resorts, diving shops, schools, and safari boats as official Reef Health Check Centers is encouraged. At one of the 50 pre-selected signature sites, each Reef Check Center may reserve up to two time periods.

Visitors and local divers are encouraged to participate in the photo shoot-out by taking pictures with one of the numerous official reefs Health Check Centers on September 28, 2022, at one or more of the 50 pre-selected signature dive sites.

All participants will get a certificate of Achievement for their contributions to the Maldives’ Coral Health Assessment. Each site requires competitors to submit a portfolio of five images: one wide angle of a reef landscape one close-up of a living coral, one image of species of fish, and two more images of their choosing. For each picture submitted, a winner, runner-up, and three honorable mentions will be chosen, giving a total of 250 winners across all 50 dive locations.

The selection of photographs will be overseen by an international jury. Both the winner and the runner-up will receive prizes. The Reef Health Assessment and the Ministry of Tourism Maldives will be granted usage rights to the winning pictures by the first- and second-place finishers for conservation and marketing objectives. Live results announcements will be made on October 5, 2022.