With the latest set of Manta Ray sightings having been analysed, we would like to introduce you to 3 more individuals that have appeared around the Lhaviyani Atoll in the past few months.

These individuals all have a story to tell.  Meet one of the most frequent visitors to the Atoll, as well as one of the Mantas that traveled a long way to get here.

And we would like to ask for your help to name one of these majestic rays, that until a couple of months ago we knew nothing about. Add to their story by leaving your suggestion below.

Meet ‘Hook’

Last Seen: 4th April 2010

Sex: Juvenile Female

Sightings: 14 Cross Atoll, inc Baa & Lhaviyani

Hook recently made her first 2 appearance in this Atoll, but is well known to the Research Project, having previously been seen in the Baa Atoll. But these appearances mark the first cross atoll sightings for her. Hook received her name following the cutting loose of some fishing line attached to a hook that was stuck in her mouth.

Meet ‘Feng Shui’

Last Seen: 16th May 2010

Sex: Mature Female

Sightings: 12 Lhaviyani Sightings

Feng Shui is the Manta that we have seen the most in the Lhaviyani Atoll.  She is a mature female, and is a regular to the Fushivaru Thila cleaning station, as well as showing up in April and May at Dhanifaru for some feeding action. We saw Feng Shui heavily pregnant in February 2008 at Fushivaru.

Meet ‘? ? ? ? ?’

Last Seen: 16th May 2010

Sex: Juvenile Male

Sightings: 4

This is a new Manta that has burst onto the scene with 4 sightings within 2 months, all at Dhanifaru. He appears to be attracted to Sofia’s though- she has spotted him together with her guests 3 out of the 4 times that he has been seen.

We still don’t have a name for this Manta, and we would like you to change this. Let us know, using the comments box below if you have a good idea for a name.

Just make sure that the name starts with “D”, and as mentioned, this is a young male Manta, so something like “Doris” might not be appropriate!  If we receive a number of different names, we will in fact use all of them, as there are quite a few Mantas that are currently nameless.

April proved to be a bumper month for Manta sightings in the Lhaviyani Atoll, with Dhanifaru notching up it’s 100th identified visitor!

101 separate Manta Rays have now been photographed and subsequently identified from just this one snorkel site.

As the action on Dhanifaru slows down due to the change in the Monsoon, the sightings of the past few months has thrown up some interesting new findings:

In total, we have identified 163 individual Mantas in the Atoll (43 female, 33 male, 85 juveniles and 2 unknown).  60% of these Mantas have been resighted at least once around the Lhaviyani Atoll, suggesting that they are in fact more frequent visitors.

Cross Atoll Migrations Identified

25 of the Mantas identified here have been moving quite some distances while away from the Atoll. This latest set of results has shown that some of the Manta Rays have in fact been covering distances in excess of 200km.

22 of the Mantas have been seen in the Baa Atoll, to the south west of the Lhaviyani Atoll.

1 female Manta has been cross referenced in the Ari Atoll - approx 250km away.

2 Mantas have been seen right up in the north in the Haa Alifu Atoll – approx 170km from here.

Cross Atoll sightings help further understand the movements of these graceful creatures, and help to develop successful conservation strategies to ensure their long term survival.

As the Manta Ray Specialty Course continues through the summer months, we would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the snorkelers and divers that have participated in the course so far, and that have provided us with ‘belly shots’ of Mantas to help in the ongoing research project.

Prodivers would also like to thank the hard working snorkel team for their effort and commitment to making this project a success. In addition to thanking Sarah, Ludwig, Sofia and Karola, we would especially like to thank Anna for sorting through all the photo id shots that come in every month.

Seagrass Ghost Pipe Fish that is!

Markko had just finished a confined water dive with Golan and Per as part of his Open Water Course, when he stumbled across 2 little ghost pipe fish.

After having completed their skills, Markko headed off for a swim with his students in front of the house reef hut. On their way back to the steps Markko suddenly spotted two pieces of sea grass, moving in a strange way… When he took a closer look it didn’t take him long to clarify that the two pieces of  seagrass were in fact Seagrass Ghost Pipe Fish!

The two little creatures were  just 10cm tall and were doing a great job of mimicking a piece of grass, helping to ensure they remained well hidden from predators.

On the picture you can see them swimming face down – their preferred position.  If you take a closer look, you can even spot the eyes and mouth.

It is always great for us if we can show such special animals during the students Open Water Course!

It wasn’t even DJ night and the dive center team were running around late in the evening this week!

At around 11:30 pm, the ‘Turtle Phone’ rang to let us know about that there was a turtle nest hatching on the north side of Kuredu!

When we arrived on the beach, it was clear to see that some help was needed as the beach was swarming with the baby turtles!  Unable to locate the nest itself, some Kuredu Resort staff together with guests staying in the O Resort bungalows took to offering the stray hatch-lings a helping point in the right direction as some of them appeared to have lost their way.

Turtles normally hatch around full moon, but these little guys made a surprise appearance around the new moon, meaning there was less light in the sky to help them navigate to the water.

Turtle hatch-lings have to make their way into the ocean on their own.  This helps them to program their built in GPS system that will ensure that any female turtles that survive will make their way back to Kuredu one day to lay their own eggs, completing this incredible tale of survival.

Once the turtles made it into the sea, they started swimming towards the outer reef and to the next step in one of nature’s most incredible stories of survival. During their first year, the turtles they will drift along with the ocean currents trying hard to to survive, but only 1 out of every 1,000 will make it to adult hood!

If you’re interested in learning more about the life cycle of the Turtle, check out the Turtle Specialty Course that we offer to both divers and snorkelers alike.  The course also includes a dive or a snorkel at Kuredu Caves where you can enjoy the unique community of green turtles that live there.

We would like to wish the turtles the best of luck, and hope that they one day make it back to Kuredu.

For the past few weeks, Stefanie (our resident nurse and diving / EFR instructor trainer) has been running first aid courses for some of the resort staff.

Participating in the course have been a number of the dhoni crews who are regularly taking our guests on diving and snorkeling trips.  All the boat captains have been previously trained in what to do in case of emergencies in the water, but this was a great opportunity for the rest of the crew to learn what they could also do in case a situation arose.

The participants learnt how to administer basic first aid, apply wound dressings, provide oxygen and to treat aquatic marine life injuries.

Mueen and Yaafis were on hand to help Stefanie with any translations into Dhivehi help the crew complete the course.

Following on from his whistle-stop of Europe last year, Yaafis took to the road once more summer to see and experience something new.

Clearly the taste of the Alps fueled a desire to climb for Yaafis, as he has just returned from nearly 3 weeks in Nepal’s beautiful Sagarmatha National Park.

At over 3,000 meters above sea level, Sagaramatha is the highest National Park in the world, containing three peaks higher than 8,000m.

One of the major challenges for Yaafis and his group of 8 friends came in the form of Kalapattar.  Kalapattar is a mountain with its summit at an impressive 5,545m.  Kalapattar offers stunning views of Mount Everest, and this was to be the goal for the explorers from this island nation.

Battling falling temperatures as they ascended, the group fought off the cold as the thermometer dropped to almost freezing during the afternoons.  Normally used to 32 degrees and blazing sunshine, the group made sure they wrapped up for the trek.  Without much need for the jackets and warm gear once they returned to the Maldives, they were all pretty relieved when they found out that they could actually rent the clothes at the start of the trek!

The journey up took 14 days, with the group bedding down in lodges and camp sites at night, and after some acclimatisation, the group slowly climbed higher and higher.

Their reward for all the effort  upon arrival at the snowy peak of Kalapattar, was the exceptional view of Everest!

Yaafis was the 10th Maldivian to step foot on Kalapattar!  After trying to claim the mountain for the Maldives, Yaafis eventually settled for a quick flying of the Prodivers flag which he had tucked away in his backpack!

In contrast, the descent took just 3 days, with all of the tour party happy to be warming up and coming into more moderate temperatures.

The group once again had a fantastic trip and we are curious about what is coming up next year!

Little did Stefano know that when he headed out for his dive boat with his guests on Wednesday that they would be in store for a truly magical encounter.

Traveling between Noo Giri and Ali Thila, the boat suddenly came to a stop as they spotted something big on the surface.

As the guests jumped in the water to swim with this giant, closer investigation showed that the big lump in the atoll was in fact a Humpback Whale!

Stefano and his guests spent some incredible minutes watching the whale as it circled beneath the boat a couple of times before heading off into the middle of the atoll.  There was more than enough time however, for Stefano and the guests to get some great photos, including the one you see above!

Humpback Whale Fact File:

Size: 13 – 16 m, max 25m

Weight: 35 – 40 tonnes, max 65 tonnes

Age: approx 40 – 60 years

Sexual Maturity: at 4 – 5 years, or approx 11m in length

Mating Season: Winter

Size at Birth: 4.5m

Dive Depth: Rarely over 50m

Dive Time: 15 – 30 min

Maximum Speed: 27 km/h

Distinguishing Marks: Humpbacks have lumps (tubercles) on their head and lower jaw.  In addition, the markings on the belly of the whale are unique and can be used for identification.

A couple of weeks ago Sebastjan and Barbara, both from Slovenia, joined our team on Kuredu.

Sebastjan completes our Instructor Team and brings not only a lot of experience with him, but also a lot of enthusiam! Having only worked in cold waters back in Europe, he is over the moon to have the chance to teach and guide in the warm tropical waters of the Indian Ocean.

Barbara is supporting our Office Team and shares the passion for the underwater world. During her first dives here on Kuredu she was already blown away and can’t wait to do some more dives.

We would like to wish them all the very best for their time with us on Kuredu!

The excitement regarding the Fish World Cup is now slowly coming to an end…

Today marks the 3rd place play off with the Dolphins taking on the Cleaner Shrimps. Tomorrow will see the grand final take place between the Clown Fish and the Lion Fish!

The World Cup has been a great success.  In total there were 204 applications from Fish Teams,  but unfortunately only 32 teams got the chance to be part of the World Cup.

So far, we have enjoyed 62 out of 64 games, which took place in 10 different ’stadiums’ and 9 different locations.  An excellent underwater infrastructure was in place to ensure that the large crowds present at the games were catered for.

We are curious, how many goals there will be during the last two games – so far there have already been 139! But it’s not only the number of goals scored that is remarkable, but also the amount of yellow cards – 229 were given out in total to the different fish teams…

We will keep our fingers crossed for all the fish teams during the last 2 games!

The Kuredu House Reef threw up some additional surprises for both our divers and snorkelers this week.

Shortly after our morning snorkel boat headed out to the first site of the day, they called in to tell us about 10 Manta Rays cruising around the first coral block on the house reef, close to the lagoon.

Sightings of Mantas on the Kuredu House Reef are not uncommon, but having 10 of these beautiful creatures is something extraordinary! Of course, everybody that we then told about the Mantas leaped at the chance to swim with them!

Even our Instructor Nico, who went out for a dive on the house reef together with Anna and our 9^th time repeater diver Terry, decided to have a swim with the Manta Rays before they actually went for the dive. Even after they surfaced, they couldn’t resist spending some more time with them in the water as it almost impossible to leave those stunning creatures.