Maldives
Sand Origin
Thulusdhoo, North Male’ Atoll
Random Sand Fact
White sand in the Maldives often consists of material that has passed through a fish.
Parrotfish feed on the coral reefs around the islands. With their powerful teeth, they scrape off coral to reach the algae they are after, grinding down the hard material in the process. What they cannot digest they excrete as fine sand.
In a single year, one parrotfish can produce a weight of sand roughly equal to a grown man. At Vakkaru Island, research found that parrotfish produced more than 85 percent of the new sand-sized sediment on the outer reef flat. Waves and currents can then carry some of that sand toward the island.
Much of the sand around the Maldives has, in this way, once been inside a fish.
