Atoll & Lagoon Beaches

Beaches inside an atoll or on the shore of a lagoon, where the colour and shallowness of the water is the entire experience. The sand is coral, the depth stays at knee height for a long way out, and the reef edge is visible as a line of surf on the horizon. The practical consequence of an atoll lagoon is depth, or the lack of it: much of this water is knee to waist deep for hundreds of metres, which makes it exceptional for wading and children and unsatisfying for a proper swim. Snorkelling is generally at the reef edge rather than from the sand, and the current there is where the caution belongs. Atoll beaches are also the register's clearest illustration of sea level as a live question: almost none of this land sits more than two metres above the water.