The Maldives: Kingdom of the Fishes

By Jett Britnell

My son's eyes bulged as he watched me trace my finger over the globe in his bedroom. The vast distance separating the Maldives from British Columbia must have seemed incomprehensible to his seven year old brain. Danen and I chatted for a while about the logistics of how long it would take me to get there and what species of marine life I might see. I could tell from his puzzled look that his mind was reeling with the notion that his dad would quite literally be diving on the other side of the world. As I tucked him into bed and kissed him good-night, he said, "Dad, be sure to take a lot of fish pictures." I told him that I would certainly try and that maybe on this assignment I would get lucky and see a whale shark. Danen scrunched his head into his pillow and replied, "Yeah dad that would be rad!"

The Maldives (pronounced Mahl-dives) straddle the equator and lie approximately 480 kilometres off the southern tip of India, and 720 kilometres south west of Sri Lanka. The Maldivian archipelago is comprised of 1,190 palm-covered islands grouped into a chain of 26 coral atolls that spread out over a total area of 90,000 square kilometres. The word "atoll" has its origins in the Maldivian word Atholu, meaning a ring of coral islands surrounding a shallow lagoon. Each low-lying island is girdled by tranquil turqouise lagoons enclosed by coral reefs that protect its beaches and vegetation from rough or turbulent seas. Only about one-sixth of this exotic land of a thousand atolls is populated and none of these islands exceed an altitude of more than 15 feet. Scientists speculate that if the world's oceans rise, the Maldives will be the first country to disappear underwater.

While there are over 70 beachside dive resorts scattered throughout the Maldives, we chose to cover the reef terrain from a liveaboard boat. The liveaboard we chose to be our Maldivian home away from home was the 85-foot Manthiri which routinely travels a circuitous route between North and South Male and the Felidhu Atolls transporting divers to some of the seldom visited dive sites. All diving is conducted from a smaller support boat known as a dhonis.

Shortly after boarding the Manthiri, I discovered that our dive guide, Ahmed Manik, is one of the more knowledgable divemasters in the Maldives. Manik has explored hundreds of dive sites throughout the Maldive chain and over time he soon had me convinced that he did indeed remember most of them. Apart from looking after everyone and ensuring that the dhonis would leave on time for every dive, Manik also scheduled excursions to the local fishing villages between dives so we could get a glimpse of traditional Maldivian culture.

If there ever was a dive destination that could wear the crown, 'Kingdom of the Fishes', the Maldives is surely it. Having dived extensively throughout the Pacific and the Caribbean, I can attest to seeing more tropical fish in abundance here than I have seen anywhere else. At least three quarters of the world's reef fish inhabit these waters with some species being endemic to the Indian Ocean. The Maldives government enforces a strict conservation policy towards commercial fishing that makes the use of harpoons and hunting of marine mammals such as whales, dolphins, porpoises and huge fish like the whale shark illegal. Maldivian anglers primarily limit their catch to only tuna and essentially ignore other reef fish.

Most of our dives occurred along the outer edge of various atolls or on submerged pinnacles or seamounts (known in the Maldives as a "Thila") made up of large coral monoliths that stab upward from abysmal depths. In some places, there are some strong currents, and we enjoyed phenomenal drift dives through some of the channels or passages that lead to the inner lagoons from the outer atoll walls.

Try to imagine hurtling past barracuda as they align their noses into the current, or swimming through enormous swarms of multicoloured reef fish. Extravagantly coloured angelfish, big-eye squirrelfish, groupers, striped-yellow oriental sweet lips, Moorish idols, bizzare-looking unicornfish, scorpionfish, Indian Ocean butterflyfish, powder-blue surgeonfish, titan triggerfish and a gazillion red tooth triggerfish infest the reef slopes. Strong currents generally bring large pelagics closer to shore so we often saw large jacks, white tip reef sharks, four- to six-foot gray reef sharks, dogtooth tuna, eagle rays, stingrays, and on a few occasions, manta rays. Hawksbill turtles were plentiful and seemed oblivious to the frenzied advance of the underwater photog raphers onboard. One of the more fascinating sightings that one diver claimed was that of a thresher shark in deeper water.

But for me the absolute highlight of this tour was the opportunity to snorkel with the largest fish in the world, a 25-foot long whale shark. We were bound for Hitholu Pass when the captain spotted a whale shark swimming at the surface just outside the atoll. A short time later, everyone was frantically scrambling around in the dhonis and jumping overboard with snorkels and cameras in hand. Although only a juvenile as whale sharks go, the jubilant thrill of my first ever encounter with one of these magnificent creatures was no less diminished. While this was the only whale shark that I saw during the trip, other divers saw two more during two separate dives at Medu Tila. I became convinced that the Maldives harbours a healthy population of whale sharks. Particularly after I emerged from my cabin the next morning and we were told that two different whale sharks had appeared off the Manthiri's stern while we were sleeping.

The untouched-feel of the Maldives' balmy fish-filled waters and dazzling underwater scenery places it in the leagues of being one of the world's few remaining unspoiled ocean realms. Indeed, little has changed here since Marco Polo travelled these ancient maritime trade routes and proclaimed these idyllic islands "the Flower of the Indies." Yet, I suspect that when my son is old enough to strap on some diving gear and plunge beneath blue Maldivian seas, he will surface from the Kingdom of the Fishes and simply declare, "Dad, the diving here is rad!"

For more information about diving in the Maldives, contact travel advertisers in this publication or Reef & Rainforest Worldwide Adventure Travel, 4000 Bridgeway, Suite #103, Sausalito, CA 94965-1444, Tel: (415) 289-1760 or Fax: (415) 289-1763, http://www.reefrainfrst.com.

The author would like to thank the Manthiri , Malaysia Airlines, New World Hotel in Kuala Lumpur and Reef & Rainforest for their assistance.

DivingDiving season is year round, but most divers feel the best season is from February to April. Underwater visibility is generally excellent. Ocean temperatures averages 29 degrees Celsius.