In Pictures: Volunteer divers guard Oman's 'unique' coral reefs

Daymaniyat Islands, Oman: On a sailing boat anchored off Oman's pristine Daymaniyat Islands, volunteer divers pull on wetsuits, check their scuba tanks and then take turns plunging into the clear turquoise water.

They are diving for a reason: to remove the massive fishing nets damaging an unusually resilient coral reef system that is seen as more likely than most to survive rising sea temperatures.

The clean-up is one example of how divers and Omani authorities are joining forces to protect the reefs - which are critical for marine wildlife - from man-made damage.

A volunteer diver shows fishing nets removed from coral reefs at Oman's Dimaniyat islands.

Most shallow-water corals, battered and bleached white by repeated marine heatwaves, are "unlikely to last the century", the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said last year.

Volunteers take part in a campaign to remove fishing nets from coral reefs at Oman's Dimaniyat islands.

Oman's relatively cooler waters provide a rare refuge for its reefs, which are among the least studied in the world.

Global warming, as well as dynamite fishing and pollution, wiped out a startling 14 percent of the world's reefs between 2009 and 2018, according to the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network. | Volunteer divers take part in a campaign to remove fishing nets from coral reefs at Oman's Dimaniyat islands.

Volunteer divers take part in a campaign to remove fishing nets from coral reefs at Oman's Dimaniyat islands.

Volunteer divers take part in a campaign to remove fishing nets from coral reefs.