7DaysinParadise
Diving => Diving => Topic started by: Pacific State 808 on September 29, 2009, 10:04:41 AM
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I arrived back from the most amazing and wonderful Maldives last night after a fantastic adventure in trying first of all locate, and then hopefully too dive with Manta Rays. The Maldives are truly the jewel of the Indian Ocean, a set of coral atolls that are unbelievabley beautiful and contain some of the best marine wildlife in the world.
This was our island where we based ourselves for our trip.....a tiny isolated island you could walk the entirety within 10 minutes.
(http://i634.photobucket.com/albums/uu66/PacificState808/Maldives-September2009143.jpg)
(http://i634.photobucket.com/albums/uu66/PacificState808/Maldives-September2009294.jpg)
Some of the dives where very technically challenging, really hard work as where the islands are dotted about, the Indian Ocean is forced through channels between the Islands. These channels in many cases are deep, but the main problem are the currents, these can only be described as extremely severe. Face the current at the wrong angle and it will rip the mask from your face and the reg from your mouth, sometimes we found ourselves just being blown around like washing on a clothes line in a tornado.
However, for three weeks anytime between September and the first week of October these currents bring in clouds of plankton which gives us, as divers both good, and bad problems. The good is that it attracts the Manta Rays (that's if you can find them) that come in from the deeper open ocean to feed on the plankton, and the bad is that this makes the visability of the water terrible. I mean really terrible, just 4 metres max at 35 metres ! Mixed with the currents, the two make it virtually impossible to get quality pictures, (the pictures come out like your taking them in a blizzard as the plankton gets in front of the lens) and the current gives you in most cases a single chance to get a picture before you are blown further down the reef.
Here are just a few below, I will post more and tell you about the weeks adventures when I have caught up with everything at work and at home.
These are Black Tip Sharks hunting a large school of sardines. The sharks, about a dozen of them gathered every morning and evening, forcing the sardines into the shallow waters and then charge into them to catch them. This picture was taken from the roof of my little room I rented taken as I had my morning coffee. I use to get up at 6am every morning and snorkel with the sharks to watch them hunt.
(http://i634.photobucket.com/albums/uu66/PacificState808/Maldives-September2009022.jpg)
The heron would also get in on the action......
(http://i634.photobucket.com/albums/uu66/PacificState808/Maldives-September2009256.jpg)
Beautiful colours and beautiful fish.....
(http://i634.photobucket.com/albums/uu66/PacificState808/Maldives-September20091102.jpg)
One of favourites to watch are the shy and somestimes aggresive Clown Fish....Nemo! They try and hide in the stinging anemone and if they have young they will come out and stand their ground after a while, chasing you off and pecking at your mask. (Check out the baby Clown fish the adult is trying to protect at the bottom of the picture, you can just see it's tiny face poking out to see if I am still here !)
(http://i634.photobucket.com/albums/uu66/PacificState808/Maldives-September2009756.jpg)
Was I lucky enough to find the Manta's ?.......................
A long story and lots of hard work tracking with some local help......but......
Just a mere 8 metres (25 foot) from wing to wing......
(http://i634.photobucket.com/albums/uu66/PacificState808/Maldives-September2009148.jpg)
Hope you enjoyed the pics.....I will post some more over the week.
Pacific State 808
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Great photos, loved the Clown fish.
Looking forward to hearing more of you adventure.
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WOW! That is Sooo incredible! :icon_thumright: :icon_thumright: :icon_thumright:
Really Great pictures! Add more when you can, please!
:grin: :grin: :grin:
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Great Pictures, thanks for sharing :icon_thumright:
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Absolutely fabulous. Thanks. Post more anytime.
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Breathtaking!!!
Thank you for sharing your wonderful experience with us, it is very much appreciated. :icon_thumright:
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Thank you so much great pictures and good commentary. - glad you had some good stories
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oh man, that looks amazing!
still green with envy :)
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Here is a link to my diving pics..........
http://s634.photobucket.com/albums/uu66/PacificState808/?albumview=slideshow
These are some of my favourites...
The tiny but beautiful 'spotted boxfish', very shy and would dart in the tiniest hole as soon as it saw you.
(http://i634.photobucket.com/albums/uu66/PacificState808/Maldives-September20091231.jpg)
Schooling Longfin Bannerfish, I found these drifting in the current on the outer reef in a school of over a thousand.
(http://i634.photobucket.com/albums/uu66/PacificState808/Maldives-September20091108.jpg)
Oriental Sweetlips.
(http://i634.photobucket.com/albums/uu66/PacificState808/Maldives-September20091051.jpg)
These fish are all jumping out of the water as they are being attacked from below by sharks. I was out snorkeling early in the morning watching the sharks hunt when they drove the school of fish to where exactly I was swimming and it went crazy. I could feel the Blacktips banging against my legs as they was trying to grab as many fish as they could. All I could do was stay as still as possible preying they wouldn't take a chunk out of them. It was an awesome experience.
(http://i634.photobucket.com/albums/uu66/PacificState808/Maldives-September2009689.jpg)
A culprit of the above.
(http://i634.photobucket.com/albums/uu66/PacificState808/Maldives-September2009134.jpg)
Finally, a rare Ribbon Eel and a Manta.
(http://i634.photobucket.com/albums/uu66/PacificState808/Maldives-September2009976.jpg)
(http://i634.photobucket.com/albums/uu66/PacificState808/Maldives-September2009162.jpg)
Pacific State 808
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I cannot believe how incredibly beautiful your photos are! I am in total awe. Thank you so much for sharing them. Your "commentary" was, indeed, an interesting read. I think all the divers here at 7Days were viewing your photos with envy! TC :grin:
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You said it TC!! :Iagree: This is the kind of diving I've been looking-for for years!!!
Great Pictures!!! Thanks so much for sharing! :icon_thumright: :icon_thumright: :icon_thumright:
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(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/SeaWorld_Manta_2.JPG)
This is as close as I got to your experience, the new Manta coaster at Sea World in Orlando.
Great pics!!
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:laughing7: Good one, PA!
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Thank you so much for sharing these terrific pics.You brought out the beauty of the Maldives.Cheers Dan
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Thanks all your kind comments.
I love your Manta experience PA...lol
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I'm revisiting these wonderful photos, and I'm still in awe.
PS808, you mentioned that the little island you stayed on could be walked in 10 minutes. I would love to experience a small island like that, which resort or hotel did you stay at? What was the name of the little island? and how did you arrange the dives, was there an onsite dive operation?
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Hi Heather
This is the Island I stayed on, it's called 'Biyadhoo'.
(http://i634.photobucket.com/albums/uu66/PacificState808/biyadhoo_island_maldives.jpg)
The Island has just one 'resort', well the Island is the resort, but it is the most wonderful of places.....a true tropical paradise island. No need for shoes as the island just has little sand paths that take you to the one beach bar, or the one resturant or finally to the dive op. What more do you need. It's really chilled out at night, everyone sitting around chatting and you make lots of friends whilst there.
The island takes 10 minutes max to walk around at a slow pace, and it is surrounded by the most amazing, pristine coral reefs that contain everything. You can just sit on the dock and watch the sharks and angel rays if you don't want to get wet !!
The diving is the best. You have the choice to go on two boat dives a day, or you can just grab a cylinder, kit up on the beach and off you go on your own into the surrounding reef. I use to get up, have an early morning dive, then go on the boat, come back and have another dive on the reef, go grab some lunch, back on the boat for the afternoon dive and come back and have a late afternoon dive on the reef....then maybe a night dive if there's one organised. I use to spend 90 minutes each dive at around the 10 - 15 metre level and I would have the time of my life....I would suck my cylinder dry before coming up, there is just so much to see. The reef is just absolutely packed with fish, lots of stuff I had wanted to see but never had before.
The boat dives can be tricky and deep, but the DM's where very good and arranged dives for those who wanted trickier dives or those who just wanted to amble about on the reefs etc.....
This is the dive op on the island.... http://www.dive-ocean.com/310_biy_center.aspx
I am heading back to the Maldives soon, but this time I have decided to go on a dedicated dive boat (live-a-board). This is a 10 day safari around the Maldives, the boat holds just 10 divers and you live on the boat and it tours the Maldives atolls going to best sites. I will post the details etc when I have them.
PS808
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I have uploaded 15 small diving videos I took whilst diving (they are on the pages 2 and 3 of the album link below).
http://warrens.smugmug.com/
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Incredible as usual :icon_thumright:
I see you're using smugmug, what do you think of it?
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I really like Smugmug, I only knew this existed after Gambitt posted his holiday pictures from Jamaica. The site is really easy to use and the online albums look really nice. The best bit for me is the fact that I could upload video as well. I don't mind paying an annual fee to store pictures if the website is good and has good facilities. Well done on finding Smugmug Gambitt, you should be on comission !!
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I can't even take the credit for that one.
While I was in Jamaica, I got talking to another photographer (she was interested in my big lens) and Catherine told me about it. :grin: