Amedee Lighthouse Reef

Noumea · South Province · New Caledonia

The iron lighthouse on Amedee Islet has guided ships into Noumea's harbour since 1865, but the real spectacle lies below the waterline. The tiny coral cay sits on the outer edge of New Caledonia's barrier reef, the second longest on the planet, and the surrounding waters are a mosaic of coral gardens, sandy channels, and reef slopes dropping into the deep Pacific. UNESCO inscribed this lagoon as a World Heritage Site, and diving at Amedee reveals immediately why. I rolled backward into water so clear I could see my fins hit the sandy bottom at eight metres. The first thing I encountered was a banded sea krait, slate-grey with pale bands, threading through a thicket of staghorn coral with the fluid grace of a ribbon in wind. By the end of the dive I would count fourteen of them. They are the signature species here, utterly unbothered by divers and endlessly fascinating as they probe crevices for small fish. The reef platform extends outward in a gentle slope covered in hard coral of exceptional health. Brain corals alternate with fields of branching Acropora in hues from electric blue to mustard yellow. Giant clams gape from the rubble, their iridescent mantles shimmering. A blacktip reef shark cruised the sand channel between two bommies, turned when it spotted us, and circled back before continuing its patrol. At twenty metres the slope steepens and coral gives way to a wall dotted with gorgonian fans and encrusting sponges. A clown triggerfish defended its patch with absurd ferocity, darting at my camera housing. On the sand at the wall's base, a mantis shrimp peered from its burrow with remarkable compound eyes, tracking my movement with an intelligence that seems improbable for a crustacean. The return across the reef top was a slow meander through coral corridors where green turtles rested on every other bommie. The lighthouse cast a long shadow across the surface as I made my safety stop, the iron tower that has watched over this reef for more than 150 years.