Song for Jasmine

whitetip reef shark (Triaenodon obesus)

The Maldives claims to be the place where “even the sharks are friendly”. I’m not too sure I’d want to meet a ‘friendly’ shark, I’d settle for ‘indifferent’. In my experience, the sharks in the Maldives are definitely that, I’ve seen several dozen and they’ve never shown the slightest interest in me. That’s not the only reason why the Maldives is a fantastic place to dive, though it certainly helps. If you’re thinking of going there for a diving holiday, I can recommend it.

I’ve visited four islands on diving holidays, some of them two or three times. I learned to dive with Sea Explorer, at Reethi Beach (Baa atoll), back in 2000. I’ve dived at Machafushi (Ari atoll), where they have an impressive wreck, deliberately sunk on the house reef. I’ve also dived with Ocean-pro dive-team, at Coco Palm (Baa atoll) and Mirihi (Ari atoll).

It has to be said, none of the websites for the islands or their dive-schools do them justice. They are very pretty to look at, but don’t really give any idea of what it’s like to dive in those places. Hopefully, I can go some small way to filling that gap, with this and future articles.

clownfish

The Maldives is a great place to learn. Shallow lagoons make for easy first lessons, and warm waters mean no messing around with thick wetsuits. The resorts all have a large variety of dive-sites to choose from, normally with a good range for all levels of ability and all interests, from beginner to expert diver. Many (if not all) of the resorts are PADI dive-centres, though I believe they also accept most other internationally recognised certificates. Your tour-operator can probably check for you if you are in any doubt.

Although PADI certify divers to 40 metres (120 feet) (with the Deep Diver certification), the Maldives imposes its own limit of 30 metres (90 feet). Diving below that is not permitted in order to limit disturbance to the environment. That’s not really a handicap, there’s plenty to see in that 30 metres. That said, it’s true that the scenery does change with the depth, and if you are limited to shallower depths by your certification, you might want to consider taking an extra course while you’re there, to get the full value from your dives.

lionfish (Pterois Volitans) at Kihaa Rock

You can dive on the house-reef of your resort, but most of the diving happens from boats. Depending on your resort, there may be one or two boats in the morning, and one or two in the afternoon. Reethi Beach, for example, run two boats in the morning, one which leaves early and does two dives (with an hour’s rest between them) and one which leaves later, doing only one dive. That lets you choose the pace you want for your holiday.

You have to sign up for the boat you want the day before, so they know how many people to expect. Places are limited on each boat, and some popular dive-sites get fully subscribed quickly, so depending on how fanatical your fellow holiday-makers are, you may have to be quick! If you miss out on a site you wanted to visit, just ask the dive-centre. They’ll be willing to re-schedule it soon enough, after giving a day or two to avoid over-diving at the same site, and you’ll get your chance.

scorpionfish

Some resorts, Coco Palm is one of them, also organise all-day trips. The boat leaves Coco Palm early in the morning and takes in three dive-sites. You eat lunch on board, and because it’s a longer trip, you get to go to some of the farther sites, places that you might otherwise not get to. It can be quite tiring, but it’s great fun!

House reefs can also be a lot of fun. If you want a rest from the boats, a house-reef is a more leisurely dive. In fact, the house reef at Machafushi is the place I’ve dived at most in the Maldives. The ship sunk there attracts a great deal of life, and it was always a pleasure to dive there.

For first-time divers, there are a couple of specific tips I can think of. These apply anywhere, not just to the Maldives. First, if you’re hiring equipment from the dive-centre, check the pockets of your BCD when you collect it, in case there are extra weights in them. It’s quite possible that the previous user had bouyancy problems, in which case his or her instructor may well have put an extra kilo of weight in the pockets to help them. If they forgot to remove that weight, it could upset your own diving.

black cheeked moray eel (Gymnothorax Breedeni)

Second, if you’re assigned an instructor or divemaster to follow, make sure you know what they look like. That sounds trivial, but if you’re on your first open water dive, it’s quite possible to forget that, for example, your instructor is bald, and discover that the person you are following is not. Yes, I did that! Some instructors make a point of having mis-matched fins, one blue and one yellow, for example. This makes them easy to identify underwater.

banded boxer shrimp (Stenopus Hispidus)

Such mistakes are probably very rare, and you should not be put off from diving because I mention them. For divers of all levels, the Maldives has a lot to offer. There’s the big stuff, sharks, mantas, morays, fish and corals, which are always fun to see. But there’s also a lot of small stuff hidden away, and it’s a great incentive to improve your diving. Many of the smaller creatures live in small holes or under ledges, and you need good bouyancy control to be able to approach them without disturbing them or damaging the reef. I personally prefer looking for the smaller creatures, and find that diving slowly and close to the reef is more relaxing than swimming hard to cover a lot of ground.

The Maldives is a place where strong currents can occur, and some of the best diving is to be had where the current runs fast. Small fish come out from the reef to feed, big fish come to feed on the small fish, and corals will sometimes open, even during the day. Fighting against a current is hard work, so unless you know how to stay close to the reef and minimise your exertions you may soon find you are using up your air too quickly, or that you have reached the end of the reef early.

strong current at Anga Faru, Baa atoll (note the bubbles streaming away to the right!)

Either way, your dive will be over, and you will be back on the boat while other people are still enjoying their dives. Of course, if you’re going to stay close to the reef, you need to be very careful not to damage it, so you need to know what you are doing. The dive-centre staff will be happy to give you tips (thank you Robert Schneider!), and you should take every opportunity to talk to them and learn from them.

Even if you are certified to dive on your own, you may want to follow the divemaster or instructor, at least for a few dives. They will know the best places to look for small creatures and interesting things, which can help you learn how to find things for yourself. If you are more confident, heading out on your own away from other divers (but always with your buddy!) means there will be less people near you disturbing the animals you are looking for, which may make them easier to find.

One thing you really must try, even if you are a beginner, is a night-dive. The boat will leave around sunset, and you enter the water as twilight descends. You can still see where you are going and get your bearings, so there’s no difficulty in orienting yourself. Soon, the light disappears, and you and your buddy are left with your torches to explore a reef that looks very different to its daytime appearance. I once dived on the reef at Thiladhoo, in Baa atoll, in the afternoon and night of the same day. They could have been two completely distinct reefs, things were so different. Oh yes, I thoroughly recommend night-dives!

anthias and reef, Ari atoll

If you are planning to visit the Maldives in winter, you should consider getting flu vaccinations well before you fly. The last thing you want is to be paying 5-star rates to stay in bed with a cold, and you certainly can’t dive with a congested nose.

For a diving holiday, you will need at least two weeks, one week is just too short. You need a day to get over the jet-lag of getting there, and you can’t dive for 24 hours before your return flight, so a week just wouldn’t give enough time to dive.

More importantly, once you’ve dived in the Maldives, you’ll want to do it again. Even as you board the plane to come home, you’ll be trying to figure out when you can come back again. Take my word for it. Or better yet, don’t take my word, go there and find out for yourself!

Anthias on the reef

Verena Wiesbauer is a marine biologist, with particular knowledge of coral propagation and restoration techniques. In March 2009, she gave a lecture to the Maldives Science Society. Someone in the audience filmed it, and was kind enough post it on google-video, so now you can all enjoy watching “The Coral Reefs of the Maldives” as I have.

I learned a lot from this presentation, it’s very educational and entertaining. There’s a ‘pop-quiz’ early on, in which you are asked to identify what type of plant or animal is being shown. I pride myself on having correctly recognised Coriocella (though I did have to look up how to spell it), having seen them in Baa Atoll a few years ago.

Verena tells us that the Maldives sits on a volcanic chain which forms the basement of the islands. These volcanoes were active around 67 million years ago, so around the time the dinosaurs were dodging asteroids. Coral first started growing on these volcanoes some 55-57 million years ago. Since then, sea-level has changed several times, most recently after the last ice-age when it rose dramatically as the ice melted and retreated. The Maldivian atolls were flooded at that time, and the upward growth of coral only succeeded in creating islands around 3000-4000 years ago. The actual coral growth in the Maldives now forms a layer about 2000 metres thick. That’s a lot of coral!

soft coral

Having shown us some of the animals that live in and around the Maldivian reefs, Verena goes on to tell us about some of the problems that are affecting the reefs today. Beach erosion is a serious problem. With two monsoons each year, coming from different directions, it is natural for the sand to shift from one side of an island to the other during the year. In 2000, half of the islands were sufferring from beach erosion. There are simple measures that the Maldivians can take to protect themselves from the worst effects of such erosian, such as not building too close to the shoreline and using sand and aggregates imported from India for construction (instead of dredged from their own reefs).

They can also protect the islands by protecting the living reef. A living reef will protect against beach erosion by reducing the force of the waves as they come inshore, a dead reef will soon be destroyed by the waves and offer little or no protection. A reef needs at least 50% live coral-cover to provide adequate protection, few of the Maldivian reefs have that at this time.

There are other threats to the reefs too. The Maldivians themselves generate a lot of waste, and they have nowhere to put it. The island of Thilafushi is a municipal landfill, and there is concern that all sorts of toxic waste from it may leak into the ocean and harm the environment.

gorgonian sea fan

Discarded fishing-lines cause a lot of damage too. One horrible slide in the presentation shows a turtle that became entangled in a fishing-line while it was young. It survived, and grew up with the fishing-line constricting its growth. I’ve never seen a turtle with an hour-glass figure before, and I hope I never do again.

Another major cause of damage to coral reefs is the tourist industry. Divers, even experienced ones, can cause a lot of damage. Verena gives a personal account of diving with tourists who lay down on the reef to watch sharks, and who were upset with her for not doing the same because she might scare the sharks away! I’ve seen divers who allowed their diving lamps to trail along the bottom of a reef like a wrecking-ball while they were concentrating on getting closer to a few manta-rays nearby.

Not surprisingly, divers with cameras cause more damage than those without, they’re focussed (literally!) on what they’re looking at, not what they’re bumping into. Diving from shore causes more damage than diving from boats, and night-diving causes more damage than diving during the day. Even without direct physical contact, reefs can be damaged by divers who kick up sediment with their fins, smothering the corals they have paid so much to see.

It’s not only divers, but also snorkellers, that damage reefs. Snorkellers will often stand on the reef to adjust their equipment, and can do a great deal of damage by careless contact. Verena cites a paper by W.R.Allison in 1996 which showed that snorkellers can can do an immense amount of damage in a short period of time.

Verena says that the dive-schools could give better briefings, for both divers and snorkellers. Her own experience is that people appreciate being reminded of the simple things they can do to reduce their personal impact. I know some dive-schools don’t like to impose on their divers, so will not mention such things in their briefings. You can always invite them to say something when they ask if there are any questions. Put your hand up and say “I have a question, do we have to be careful about what we touch on this dive?”. It’s worth a try!

Dive-schools should also respect the ‘carrying-capacity’ of dive-sites, and not visit them too frequently, so they have time to recover from each invasion. This is a particular problem in the Red Sea, where many reefs are seriously degraded by divers. Of course, that’s not easy when there are many dive-schools competing to take people to the most popular sites.

Individually, divers can take steps to reduce their impact even more. Those of you that dive with PADI can take the Peak Performance Buoyancy course (other organisations probably have something similar). You’ll find you dive better (i.e. use less air, are more relaxed) and do less harm to the reef because you have more control. You’ll see more on each dive, too, because you will spend less time fighting with your equipment and frightening fish with your thrashing, and more time looking around.

Coco-palm encourages tourists to preserve the environment

Tourism can also be a positive force. wildaid.org invented the slogan “When the buying stops, the killing can too“, and used it in their campaign against shark-finning. You can kill a shark for its fins only once, but if you leave it alive, tourists will pay again and again to come and see it when they dive.

Verenas’ presentation has an optimistic tone, she clearly loves her work. There are things that can be done to help the reefs, and she mentions some of the many restoration and conservation projects in the Maldives. She herself has assisted in the creation of an artificial reef at Huvafenfushi. I’ll end this post with a quotation she gave at the beginning of per presentation. It’s from Baba Dioum, a Senegalese environmentalist or poet (depending on who you ask):

It would be good if people were taught more about the world we live in today.

Mary, from Parrot Musings, is thinking of going SCUBA-diving. Her husband is trying to convince her to give it a go. Mary has invited me to see if I can help persuade her, so, Mary, this post is for you. In this post I’ll talk about learning to dive, later I’ll talk about some of the things I have done underwater after qualifying.

I leared to dive the PADI way. PADI is the Professional Association of Diving Instructors, and if I recall correctly, it’s the largest professional diving organisation in the world. PADI is American in origin, so it’s almost certain, Mary, that you will be learning the PADI way. The PADI system is simple, and is based on having fun by getting into the water early. PADI are aware that many people learn to dive when they are on holiday, and they have other things to do than just sit in a classroom. They have put a lot of effort into making their system practical and fun. PADI certification is recognised internationally, so you can dive practically anywhere in the world once you are certified.

The PADI system recognises several levels of certification, catering for people who only want to go so far in their training. You can find a complete list of their courses on their web site. There is a lot of freedom in the order of the courses, you are not obliged to follow any set order. Open Water Diver (OWD) is the first level at which you are certified to dive without supervision from an instructor or other professional diver, but there are levels below that which give you a progressive introduction to diving. You can do the introductory courses and then take the rest in turn if you want to, but you can also skip the introductory courses and go straight to Open Water Diver, all the material is covered there. If you do do take the introductory courses, they count in your favour should you then go on to further training.

This is not a PADI exercise

The lowest introduction PADI offer is the Discover SCUBA Diving course. This is a single short session in which you are given a minimum of instruction, just enough for your safety, and you are then guided around a pool or other shallow water location by an instructor. The instructor will accompany you closely, all you have to do is enjoy the experience and find out if you like it enough to take it further. Discover SCUBA Diving does not lead to a certificate that allows you to dive elsewhere, it’s just about getting under the water. It’s a good first step for someone who is really unsure if diving is for them.

The second level of introduction does qualify you to dive, but only with professional supervision. Becoming a certified SCUBA Diver allows you to dive to depths of 40 feet (12 metres). Personally, I would recommend anyone who is thinking of this level to go one step further and take the Open Water Diver certification.

The Open Water Diver course trains you to dive to depths of up to 54 feet (18 metres), and you will be qualified to dive without a guide. It’s not much harder than the SCUBA Diver course, and the extra freedom in terms of depth and ability to dive without supervision is well worth it. Would you want to miss a dive on holiday because all the professional guides were otherwise occupied, or because the dive-site was beyond your certified depth? I wouldn’t!

This is not a PADI exercise either

The Open Water Diver course takes only a few days. You start with a session of theory, then go into the water with the full kit to practise some simple exercises. This pattern repeats itself, with the theory being given in manageable doses and the exercises becoming more advanced as you progress. I hesitate to say ‘advanced’ there, because none of the exercises are particularly difficult. They are all designed to increase your safety, your familiarity with your equipment, and your competance as a diver. They’re also fun, you get a real sense of achievement from succeeding in each new task. The first exercise sessions are conducted in shallow water, typically a swimming pool or shallow lagoon where your feet can touch the bottom. You don’t go into deeper water until you’ve passed the basics.

At the end of the course you take a short exam, multiple-choice, to verify that you have learned the theory as well as having mastered the exercises. The exam isn’t too hard, and if you get any answers wrong you can discuss them with your instructor afterwards. They will want to be sure that you understand any mistakes you made. Then, all being well, you get your certificate, and it’s off to the bar to celebrate.

If you stop at Open Water Diver, you will already have a whole new world waiting for you, just under the waves. If you want to go further, the next certification is Advanced Open Water Diver (AOWD). This certifies you to dive to 100 feet (30 metres). This is the maximum depth you can dive to with no-decompression diving, which effectively means this is the limit for recreational diving. Advanced Open Water Diver also adds to your skills, making you a better diver, not just a deeper one. Being certified for that extra depth gives you a lot more freedom for exploring the sea. The coral reefs that I have seen change significantly with depth, so going deeper is not just more of the same, it really does make a difference.

There are also a number of specialty courses you can take (dry-suit diving, rescue-diver, enriched-air diver, underwater photographer and many others). Needless to say, you should respect the limits of your certification, and not go beyond them without proper training.

Nemo, is that you?

This may sound like a typical sales pitch, continually raising the stakes with more and more courses, but the reality is that the PADI system really does let you decide how far you want to go. If you’re not totally convinced that you want to dive, try the Discover SCUBA Diving and find out. If you don’t think you want to dive without supervision, take the SCUBA Diver course. If you want some freedom to go find Nemo on your own, take the Open Water Diver course. You decide how far you go.

The PADI system has detailed standards which you are expected to measure up to, and the instructors will make sure that you do so. You will have ample chance to repeat the exercises until you are familiar with them, it’s not an ‘all or nothing’ event. Your course materials explain this in full, so you can see for yourself what is expected from you and how you are expected to achieve it. With the selection of courses available there is plenty of scope for finding the level that suits you.

No, that's definitely not a PADI exercise

PADI recommend that you take a medical exam before starting your diving activities. This is a worthwhile precaution, there are a few medical conditions that would not bother you on land but that might cause you problems underwater, and it’s an easy matter to be checked for these. You can download the PADI medical statement for full details. You can take it to your doctor, it has detailed guidelines to let him or her know what to check for if they are not knowlegeable about diving.

So Mary, hopefully I’ve helped sway you towards taking the plunge. If I haven’t convinced you yet, I have one last card to play. Did you know that one of the more common fish on the reef is the so-called parrotfish? They’re actually very important for the health of the reef.