[Maldives] Trip Report : JAN.25-FEB.01, 2020, Male – Ari -Vaavu Trip Vol.1

[#Maldives] Trip Report : JAN.25-FEB.01, 2020, #Male – #Rasdhoo – #Ari – #Vaavu Trip Vol.1

Day 1, the check dive was held at Maagiri Rock in the North Male atoll. We started the day a little later since all the guests checked in the night before lately. As we arrived at the point, there was no other dive boats around! Lucky! It was very calm and relax. The Bluestriped Snappers at the main reef were beautiful as always. The Trilobate Frogfish that we found last week was still there. For me it looked just like a black rock. Good job on pretending! I also introduced the Maldive Sponge Snail moving very slowly. The 2nd dive was at Fish Tank. It became a relax diving with a great visibility too. There were about 50 of Pink Whiprays and Blotched Fantail Rays at the sand area. And there was a wall of False Moorish Idols plus Neon Fusiliers in the mid layer.

Day 2, the 1st dive of the day was at Rasdhoo Madivaru in the Rasdhoo atoll. We encountered with a lot of Grey Reef Sharks, Bigeye Barracudas, Teira Batfish and big Napoleonfish. The 2nd dive was at Kan Thila in the North Ari atoll. We normally come here often in the rainy season. So it’s been a while to dive here in the dry season. The Whitetip Reef Sharks were resting in the bottom as we dove along with the reef. Variablelined Fusiliers, Neon Fusiliers were getting attacked by Dogtooth Tunas. Besides, about a dozen of the Grey Reef Sharks were suddenly appeared in front of us! The 3rd dive was at Maaya Thila aiming for Sharks because there was a Sharks’ cleaning station. We successfully observed many of Grey Reef Sharks! The 4th dive was at Maayafushi Lagoon aiming for night Manta. The three Manta Rays showed up and stayed with us for long time. Because they were there after our dive, some of us went back into the water with snorkel.

The water temperature was 26-31 deg.C. The water temperature was 28-29 deg.C. The visibility was 10-40 meters. To be continued…