An Ocean Geographic Legacy Project
There are moments in history when the trajectory of life on Earth shifts—quietly at first, then all at once, rapidly.
CORAL REEFS HAVE CROSSED EARTH’S FIRST CATASTROPHIC CLIMATE TIPPING POINT. According to the Global Tipping Points Report, released in October 2025, this irreversible shift is underway because global temperatures have risen approximately 1.4°C above pre-industrial levels, exceeding the coral survival threshold of 1.2°C.
The world’s reefs have crossed a threshold, our planet’s first tipping point from which there is no possible return. More than half of the world’s coral reefs are already destroyed. What remains now stands at the frontline of planetary change—bleaching under relentless heat, dissolving in increasingly acidic seas, suffocating in deoxygenated waters, and strained by the cumulative weight of human activity.
Even if humanity succeeds in stabilising global warming at 1.5 °C—a target already slipping beyond reach—the probability of widespread coral reef loss exceeds 89% by 2055.
This is not a distant warning. It is a present reality unfolding in real time. However, there is HOPE. In remote corners of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, there are still reefs that breathe, pulse and shimmer with life. Reefs that endure against the odds. Reefs that carry within them the final chapters of a story written over hundreds of millions of years. These are not just ecosystems—they are archives of evolution, engines of biodiversity, and the living foundations of coastal humanity.
The question before us is no longer whether reefs will change— but WHAT WILL REMAIN… AND WHO WILL BEAR WITNESS.
Current climate science suggests, up to 90% of the world’s coral reefs may perish by 2055, humanity faces a stark responsibility: TO ENSURE THAT WHAT IS LOST IS NOT FORGOTTEN.
ANIMA HAI 海魂 – The Remains of Our World: Coral Reefs is Ocean Geographic’s most ambitious global initiative to date: a landmark convergence of art, science, exploration and advocacy. Conceived and led by Michael AW, alongside principal scientists Dr Sylvia Earle, Dr Carden Wallace AM and Dr Emma Camp, the project seeks to create the definitive visual and SCIENTIFIC TIME CAPSULE OF EARTH’S REMAINING CORAL HERITAGE.
Beginning in 2027, a series of carefully curated expeditions will journey to some of the most critical reef systems on the planet—places that represent the full spectrum of reef reality: resilience, refuge, abundance, and decline.
From these expeditions, 100 benchmark reef sites will be scientifically selected and geo-referenced to form a global baseline of coral reef condition in 2027.
These sites will be documented with precision—visually, ecologically, and spatially—creating one of the most important reference archives ever assembled for coral reefs.
Then, in 2055, these exact locations will be revisited. To measure what has endured. TO REVEAL WHAT HAS BEEN LOST. TO HOLD A MIRROR TO HUMANITY’S CHOICES.
If reefs vanish—as many scientists now fear—ANIMA HAI will ensure that the world retains an unflinching record of what once existed. A record not only for science, but for memory, for education, for policy—and for future generations who will inherit the consequences of our time.
ANIMA HAI expeditions are not holiday expeditions; they are witness missions.
Mission – a specially selected cohort of photographers, filmmakers, scientists, storytellers, citizen scientists, and committed ocean advocates will work side by side—not simply to observe, but to document, interpret, and preserve.
Participants do not join ANIMA HAI as passengers. They become custodians of memory—contributors to a living archive that will outlast all of us.
Because what is at stake is not just coral.
Reefs support over a billion people. They underpin food security, coastal protection, cultural identity and economic survival across the tropics. Their loss is not only ecological—it is civilisational.
To document what remains is to create a record of truth. To witness them is to accept responsibility.