The Rebel Reef: The 2025 Pathfinder Issue

Beneath the waves off a beach town in Honduras lies a mysterious and vibrant place — an ecosystem whose animals defy the odds stacked against their kind worldwide.

It’s a well-known story: The future of coral reefs is at the mercy of a litany of foes, from pollution to climate change, that threaten these critical ecosystems on which so many creatures, including billions of humans, depend. But a different story awaits us in Tela. It’s a story that’s intertwined with local divemaster and 2025 Pathfinder Prize expedition leader, “Aquaman” Christian Carias. And it’s a story that has inspired a team of scientists, filmmakers, and explorers to bring us beneath those waves — and give us reasons to believe.

Welcome to The Rebel Reef: The 2025 Pathfinder Issue of Hidden Compass — a multimedia issue dedicated entirely to stories from that expedition.

Team Rebel Reef celebrates the world-wide premiere of their short documentary, directed by Brynne Rardin, in December 2025. The film profiles Tela’s rebellious reef and divemaster Christian Carias. For those who want a sneak peek, the Human & Nature department of this Pathfinder issue boasts the highly anticipated “Trailer: The Rebel Reef.”

But the story, like the reef itself, is multilayered. Behind the big screen of “The Rebel Reef” is a monumental effort which plays out in this issue’s “Gallery: A Film in the Making.” This photo collection, hosted in our Portrait department, features behind-the-scenes images made by expedition photographer and videographer Vinh Pham, film stills from director of photography Patrick Krum, and a shy whale shark.

Three written features round out the issue. In “The Ocean’s Cure,” Rebel Reef’s executive producer and coral restoration practitioner, Tiffany Duong, takes on the Pathfinder expedition’s most salient question: Should we dare to hope? In Tela, a collection of narratives — of inspired scientists, determined Hondurans, and an 80-foot-long, 500-year-old coral named Casita — come together in this Human & Nature story that confronts crises both global and personal.

Then, we follow a group of schoolchildren as they crowd before the Tela Marine Aquarium exhibits to glimpse “Dreams Behind the Glass.” In this Time Travel feature, ocean scientist and author Juli Berwald chronicles the kids’ visit in 2025, and takes us back a decade and a half earlier, when Honduran Antal Borcsok decided to explore some interesting rocks that fishermen had found along the coast in 2010.

As for how Tela’s reef is able to thrive against the odds? In Juli Berwald’s second story and Quest feature for the 2025 Pathfinder issue, the ocean scientist and Tela Coral co-founder delves into a series of “Hypotheses on the Rebel Reef” — exploring the mix of sediment-filled rivers, fertilizer-fueled phytoplankton, strategic zooxanthellae switching, and mysterious black sands that may be behind the miraculous success of The Rebel Reef.

Thriving in the unlikeliest of locations, this reef isn’t just a rebel. It’s also a role model that might signal hope for corals around the globe and the humans who love and depend on them. Do we dare to believe?

Yours in rebellious hope,

Sivani Babu and Sabine K. Bergmann, Hidden Compass Co-founders