Late February saw me on a Monarch flight to Male, capital of the Maldives. I had been contacted a couple of weeks earlier, by the editor of Sport Diver magazine, asking if I wanted to cover the Maldives. It had been an ambition I had held since I was a child, so it wasn't too hard a decision to make. The opportunity came about after the disaster of the Boxing Day tsunami, which decimated much of Southeast Asia. With the vivid and terrible media images flashing through my mind I was wondering what I would find when I arrived, although reports from the Maldives appeared to be positive.

 

The purpose of my trip was two fold: firstly by visiting the islands; and secondly, publishing an article I would help to boost the flagging tourism trade which, had suffered severely after the tsunami. The second investigation I had to carry out was to assess the health of the coral reefs and report on damage that could be attributed to the tsunami.

 

Landing at Male international airport the first thing that I noted was that you catch a boat to your island rather than a bus to a resort. Our first stop was at the island Kurumba, which was your typical beautiful palm tree, fringed tropical island with bungalows offering the highest standards of accommodation. This island took only 4 hrs to get back up and running after the wave hit which will explain a lot about the Maldavian people. Other islands were not as well protected but generally, rather than a typical tsunami, what did occur was a 1.5 metre rise in sea levels causing a surge that washed over the islands twice. That evening I met with the Minister for Tourism Dr. Mustafa Lutfi who conducted a press conference for the 20 or so journalists, from various publications. Afterwards we had a banquet on the beach, which was incredible with so many dishes on offer.

 

At 9 am the next morning I was glad I had gone easy on the booze, as the dive boat sped through the rough channel between north and south Male Atoll. We were heading towards Embudu Express, a famous dive site. I was the only person on the boat, which was adequate evidence that the diving industry as well as the tourism industry had taken a battering here.

 

This was to be one of the highlights of the trip. Descending down to 30 metres at the edge of the atoll, where the water plummets away to thousands of metres deep. We held on to a rock at the edge of the drop off, being buffeted by the powerful current. A huge school of Jack swam out in the blue and a group of 15 spotted eagle rays soared overhead. The sharks then appeared once they got used to us and we saw white tip and grey reef shark. Unfortunately none came close enough for a really good picture. Soon our dive computers were beeping, signalling our need to ascend from depth. This was achieved by letting go of the rock and letting the tide blast us up a gully between the reef. Here the fish and coral life was just breathtaking. Another white tip was encountered and a huge napoleon wrasse put the dive into my best ever slot.

 

Apart from being brilliant, the dive had provided evidence that the reefs were indeed healthy. It also gave me first hand experience of why the Maldives were not wiped off the face of the earth by the tsunami. The atolls rise vertically up from thousands of metres from the sea floor. There is no gently shelving area where resistance would enable a typical tsunami to form to a great height. The topography of the islands had saved them.

 

The next island was my personal favourite, Laguna in South Male Atoll and I had some great experiences diving with turtles and stingrays here. Once again only a minor surge had affected this island. Next up was Meeru, which lies at the East Side of North Male Atoll. This was the direction that the tsunami came from. This island suffered more than the others and took 4 weeks to get back into full operation. The wave here came up to the floor of the newly completed water bungalows in which I was staying and these looked to me to be about 3 metres above sea level. On the island itself, which is large by Maldavian standards, a wave of 1.5 metres swamped the islands and guests had to take to the trees and roofs of buildings. Nobody died here but it must have been terrifying.

 

The last island of the trip entailed a seaplane journey, which was a fantastic experience in itself. I snapped away at all the beautiful islands below. Coco-Palm a 6 star resort was where we were meant to chill after all the hard work. Some chance for me, as after gulping down some Thai spicy noodles, it was off to another dive. The quality of diving around Coco-Palm was fantastic. On the first dive we were visited by a dolphin. We heard the squawks and clicks and then a large Bottlenose Dolphin just appeared. The female and calf just stayed on the edge of the visibility, which was about 30 meters. (Who would take pictures in 30-metre vis on land thick fog?).

 

The dolphin was a piece of luck, as the dive guide had never seen one underwater. A few of their pals decided to join us for the trip back to Coco-Palm and we were surrounded by around 50 dolphin leaping all over the place.

 

The following morning was to be my last dive of the trip and rather a lot rested on it re. my publication. It was to be a rather dull and uninspiring thila (underwater pinnacle). The reason for this trip was that the site is used as a cleaning/feeding station by manta rays. It was a case of dropping to the top of the thila at around 16 metres and finding a rock to hold onto, as once again the currents were fierce. This is why the mantas inhabit these sites as the food is brought to them.

 

The visibility was poorer here at around 15 metres and it was out from the gloom that the first manta soared. They were massive creatures a full 5 metres across. I watched as tiny cleaner wrasse picked parasites from the manta's eye. I don't know if the cleaner nipped the manta or just got rid of a particularly troublesome parasite but the manta looped the loop. It's pure luck if you see the mantas here as sometimes only a single individual sticks around for a few minutes. The fact that 7 accompanied us for the whole dive was a real privilege. Apart from a misfire of my underwater strobe (flashgun), when a Manta was directly overhead, the dive went well. I hoped I had the images that I required to make the article as successful as possible, to help the Maldavian people.

 

I was unable to dive again, as I had to decompress for fully 24hrs before flying in a pressurised aircraft. So I eventually got to chill on the beach for half a day.

 

A non-diving highlight of the trip was a visit to a non-resort island to meet a Maldavian family. Leaving the opulence of the Resort Island to the abstract poverty of a local island. Entering the harbour, piles of tuna fish lay out; check the origin of your tin next time you have some.

 

The meal was in the open air and consisted of a sweet tea drink and a spicy fish dish. It was great to see all the cheeky little faces of the children peering and waving at the strange visitors to their island. With so many children and older people here the impact of Boxing Day must have been more serious. Thankfully nobody died here either. In the whole of the Maldives 83 people lost there lives, mainly the very young and the infirm.

 

The trip had gone well, The coral reefs were intact and in fact after diving in the Maldives it soon became apparent that strong currents affect all areas. Therefore a surge of water is not going to impact greatly on the reef structure. The reefs are still recovering well from the El Nino which had a far more damaging affect on the reefs around 8 years ago. Basically at that time all the coral died. Re the article it was published in the May edition of Sport Diver and hopefully went a long way to encourage divers to return to the Maldives.