Marado Island

Seogwipo · Jeju Province · South Korea

Marado is a wind-battered speck of volcanic rock roughly 11 kilometres south of Jeju Island, marking the southernmost point of South Korean territory. Above water it is a treeless basalt plateau with a single lighthouse. Below water it is a different world -- a realm of current-swept volcanic formations where the warm Tsushima Current delivers tropical strays into an environment dominated by temperate kelp and soft coral, creating a bizarre and beautiful overlap. The boat ride from Moseulpo was bouncy, whitecaps slapping the hull as we cleared Jeju's southern coast. At the site the skipper read the current before giving the go-ahead, and I rolled backward into a surprisingly strong flow. Descending quickly along the reef wall, I grabbed a rocky handhold at 20 metres. The basalt here formed natural arches and swim-throughs draped in orange and pink soft corals, their branches vibrating in the current like wind chimes. A school of yellowtail amberjack materialised from the blue, perhaps 200 fish moving as one silvery mass. They swept past the reef edge and vanished as quickly as they had appeared. Striped beakfish gathered in the lee of a large boulder, their zebra-pattern bodies pulsing as they held station. A small green sea turtle rested on a coral ledge, unbothered by the current swirling around it. Drifting along the wall, I passed through kelp that thinned and reappeared in patches, each gap revealing a different rock face covered in encrusting organisms. Moray eels peered from holes in the basalt, and triggerfish with vivid blue markings hovered near the reef crest. A boxfish trundled past at eye level, its geometric body comically out of place among streamlined reef fish. Deeper along the wall, divers pointed into the blue where the unmistakable silhouette of a hammerhead shark crossed the current line and disappeared. Such sightings are not guaranteed, but the possibility adds a charge to every moment on this exposed frontier of Korean diving.