Dive 7 – Hathikolhu – South Male

The original intention for the day was to set sail at 0530 heading westwards towards Ari Atoll in the West but it was soon apparent that the Dhoni did not have sufficient power to cope with the strong winds coming from that direction and so we turned around and moved a bit further south to the bottom of South Male.

The new dive site island looks just like one imagines a desert island to look (bar the Palm Tree). It is obvious that it would disappear under water (as would much of the Maldives) if the sea level rose much.

The original plan was to dive at Hathikolhu entering the water at the current split (top left of plan) and ideally go North (top down to the bottom on the dive plan). When the current direction was tested, it was decided that the currents were unsafe and so this dive moved to an area off the bottom of the dive plan with the instruction of “fin for one hour northwards back onto the dive plan” (and follow the guide).

There was a lot to see – here a large Sea Cucumber

about 50cms long

 

which was alive and feeding

a number of clams – open (above) and

closed. To get them to react you only have to wave your hand above them and they sense the change in current.

 

This clam has attached itself to some soft coral and is an unusual colour

There were numerous “Tortured Black Coral Whips” which are up to 40m long and here is green in colour – one thing I have learn about naming is that the colour element of the name is not necessarily true!

and varieties of circular corals which I have not seen before.

These Scavenger Sponges are very healthy and green and

close when they think your hand is above them. Fish are numerous including the densest shoal of very small fish I have met underwater.

  

As usual, Red Toothed Trigger Fish try to hide in holes in the coral and it seems that they believe if they cannot see

you, you cannot see them! 

Their tails are visible in the above picture.

The micro side includes Flat Worms (about 2 cms long)

which apparently are not worms at all because they swim and are happy living on the sand

or on corral such as in the above photograph.

 

The usual Goat Fish flit around

    

and there are numerous Morays – this one was sharing its den with a Lion Fish.

This turned out to be a nice dive with easy currents and clear viz – both of which seem to be unusual out here at this time of year.

Dive 6 – Vilivaru Giri – South Male

This Giri is about 50 m around the top (more underneath obviously) and is current swept on one side and sheltered on the other. It provides opportunities to see numerous fish and a couple of nice swim throughs. So this blog entry is full of photographs and not much else.

White Lined Lion Fish

A Moray being attended to by cleaner fish

 

a Racoon Butterfly Fish

Antheas living in coral

an Octopus hiding in a hole hoping for lunch to go by

in the centre of this photograph is the most minute Pipe Fish, click on the picture to expand it so you can try to find it.

Some sea life is very well camouflaged and adapts its colours to its surroundings

Spot the Sea Cucumber – this is carefully

camouflaged to its surrounding

others are quite obvious such as

a healthy Sea Star

healthy Thin Coral

and simply beautiful coral

and numerous Vagabond Sponges

Here is White Stinging Sea Fern with a Feather Star living in it.

and here is Blue Finger Sponge living on hard coral.

This is a great dive spot with dive times of over an hour quite easy to achieve.

Dive 5 – Medhu Faru – South Male

This dive was planned to be an easy drift dive at depths

from 30 m to 10 m starting in the north of the atoll (bottom of dive plan), drifting with the current southwards towards the open ocean (at the top of the dive plan). Upon reaching the tip of the atoll, the intention was to hook left out of the current and try to go up onto the atoll where sometimes Mantas are found.

In the event…….

A shallow negative descent to about 15m into a school of sharks (again!) – we were checked out by White Tips and

 

the occasional reef shark and then we came across a Turtle

grazing on the bottom, completely unconcerned at our presence

even when quite close up

or circling overhead

The current now picked up and we drifted south towards the ocean, passing numerous fish / corals along the way

numerous Red Toothed Trigger Fish

 

A Grouper

a Blue Faced Angel Fish

 

a Honeycomb Moray

An ordinary Moray (asleep)

    

A very large puffed up Puffer Fish

a Potato Cod

a shoal of Angel Fish hiding under an overhang

a rather nice sponge

 

a Granulated Sea Star

and Schooling Banner Fish. When we got to the end of the atoll, we found that the current suddenly reversed with quite some strength and so we chose to drift back rather than fight it to get onto the top of the atoll – so no Manta Rays again! but a long (59 minute) easy dive with plenty of air left in the tank at the end.

The weather out to sea is apparently quite poor and it is said that the Dhoni has difficulties in bad weather so we are staying in this area overnight and will try to head south and west in the early morning.

Dive 4 – Kandooma Thila South Male revisited

Because we did not get to do any of the plan for this dive the previous day, 0545 am sees us getting up for the 0555 sunrise and a repeat attempt on the Thila.

This time is was a giant stride into the water about half-way up the left hand side of the Thila and we allowed the medium strength current to sweep us up towards the shark cleaning station.

Reef hooks were used to hang down low behind a coral rise near the station (24 metres depth) and once the sharks had got used to our presence a few came back towards us through the murky water. Close to deco

time, we ascended over the Thila, past a Leaf Fish

 

and a large sea turtle some distance away and eventually back for breakfast. An ok dive but visibility was poor due to the lack of sunlight and plankton.