Sadly, a couple of days ago, Sofia left our Snorkel Team and headed back home to Sweden. After being with us for almost a year, she has  decided to move on and look for greener pastures.

The initial plan is to take a much needed break, and to do some traveling.

Sofia will be remembered for her enthusiasm for the underwater world, and for her love of the majestic Manta Rays. Needless to say, she is taking some great memories from her snorkeling excursions and diving trips with her.

On her last full day snorkel trip Sofia hit the jackpot with one of the biggest sightings in the Lhaviyani Atoll for quite some time.  For over an hour, Sofia and her group enjoyed the company of a Humpback Whale right next to their boat.

We would like to wish Sofia all the very very best for the future, thanks for everything and we will miss you and your smile!

A couple of days ago Eva from Germany and Benjamin from Switzerland arrived on Kuredu to support our Snorkel Team. Both of them are joining the team with some experience between them.

Eva regularly helped out at a dive centre on Koh Tao in Thailand before transferring to Marsa Alam, in Egypt, where she  worked in the office at a dive centre.

Benjamin has been traveling and working all around Latin America, Europe and Egypt, where he met Eva. He is now working on becoming a Divemaster soon.

Besides a lot of passion for diving and snorkeling, they bring a lot of language skills with them: German, English, French and Benjamin speaks Spanish as well!

We are pleased to welcome Eva and Benjamin into our Prodivers Team, and we wish them a great time on Kuredu!

The sun was shinning as our snorkel guides Eva & Sofia went out on a full day trip to search for the elegant Manta Rays.  After the two first snorkel sites, the group was heading towards the uninhabited island of Dhiddo to enjoy their BBQ lunch.

Suddenly, one of the snorkelers, Nicki, spotted a huge black fin coming out of the water… Not sure at first whether it was a Manta Ray or Dolphin, they then realized that the black fin coming out of the water was a bit too big, and belonged in fact to a 10m long Humpback Whale! Needless to say, the snorkelers decided to postpone lunch and stay with the whale instead!

Humpback Whales are recognized by their barrel-shaped body and oversized flippers. Their name comes from the elevation (“hump”) that protrudes on their back (see photo) instead of a well-developed dorsal fin. Whale sightings inside the atoll are extremely rare – especially Humpbacks.

Find out more facts about this huge underwater creature by checking out another recent sighting by our team on Vakarufalhi in the South Ari Atoll – “Humpback Whale in the Ari Atoll”.

The group watched in amazement for a full 1 ½ hours and were rewarded for their patience with 2 jumps from the Humpback!

With our guests arriving early and with calm seas and perfect blue skies, we set off for the Noonu Atoll full of excitement and optimistic for a great days’ snorkeling.

Over the course of the day we explored 4 snorkel sites ranging from an outreef (outside of the atoll) to an underwater island – all with great visibility and lots of thermoclines (different temperature layers of water – very refreshing!).

We also enjoyed a well-deserved lunch on the spacious dhoni while drifting in shallow turquoise waters next to an uninhabited island – the crew had prepared chicken, fish, pasta and salad while we were snorkelling and getting hungry!

During the day we were also briefly inspected by passing Spinner dolphins that came to ride the bow wave of the dhoni, and from time to time flying fish would skitter away in front of us too.

Whilst snorkelling we found several beautiful Giant Moray Eels, one of the guides spotted a Clownfish nursery with tiny babies in an anemone and we were also lucky enough to have an Eagle ray cruise beneath us for a few minutes on the outreef.

But the outstanding feature of the day was undoubtedly the coral formations.  The table corals were enormous – some of them 2-3m across; and fighting for space as they overlap each other and the multitude of other corals that proliferate in Noonu.  Perhaps Easa Faru, our last stop, was the best of all – some of the table corals had broken in half under their own enormous weight as they were so large – and it was hard to get everyone out of the water, there were suggestions that we should stay for another day…..

And finally, as we cruised through the last channel on our way back into the Lhaviyani Atoll towards Kuredu, we spotted a small pod of whales making their way slowly past the island.  Some of the guests managed to get some great photos as the cameras snapped away.

As we arrived back on the island every snorkelers dream had come true. – a perfect end to a wonderful days snorkeling.

Swooping and swirling through the water, 12 incredible Manta Rays put on an unforgettable show yesterday for one of our full day snorkel boats.

Our snorkel team on Kuredu run two full day trips a week to the south of the Lhaviyani Atoll.  The full day trips not only let us visit snorkel sites that are out of reach of the regular half day excursions, but also offer the opportunity for guests to snorkel and get up close with the world’s biggest ray – the majestic Manta Ray.

Most of our guests are curious and intrigued by the beauty of the Manta Ray.  With a wingspan reaching up to 4 meters, the mantas glide effortlessly just under the surface of the ocean as they feed on microscopic animals, barely visible to the eye, called plankton.

Our Manta Specialty Course participants this week were awestruck as they jumped in the water and for the next half an hour, enjoyed the feeding frenzy taking place in front of their eyes by the 12 manta rays that had gathered on the reef.

The feeding was in full swing as the snorkelers entered the water and they were greeted with the Mantas chain feeding and barrel – rolling in front of them.  Both chain feeding and barrel-rolling are techniques used by Manta Rays to ensure that they funnel the most amount of plankton into their gills, which they then filter feed to get the goodness and nutrients out of the plankton.

At the end of the show, it was only the snorkelers that were left hungry for more…

Dolphin are regularly seen by our divers and snorkelers as they are out and about across the Lhaviyani Atoll, but rarely do we have the chance to swim with them. Danifaru is a spot that boasts countless sightings throughout the year, so it was no surprise when two of our full day trips came across 3 bottle nose dolphins in the shallow water.

Dolphins across the Maldives, whether they be bottle nose or the more common spinner dolphins, are typically shy creatures and although they enjoy playing and racing the boats, they normally disappear when a diver or snorkeler is in the water with them.  These 3 had other ideas though, and it almost looked like they were inviting the people to join them in the water.

Keen to take them up on the offer, some guests carefully slid into the water and managed to get to within a couple of meters of the dolphins.  Rather than disappearing into the blue, the 3 bottle nose dolphins stayed around for an unforgettable 30 minutes.

Check out this week’s  Last 7 Days…On Kuredu episode to see the highlights of the video footage of us all falling in love.

Manta Ray Kuredu

Ever wondered what causes a 2 tonne giant ray to propel itself clean out of the water to an incredible 2 meters into the air?  Why do Mantas have the name ‘Devil Ray’ when they are one of the ocean’s most majestic and graceful creatures? Did you know that Mantas are being slaughtered across the world’s oceans by large scale fisheries?

Around a year ago, Prodivers teamed up with the Maldivian Manta Ray Research Project, helping them to extend  their Manta Ray sighting database and subsequently find out more about them.  Until recently very little was known about Mantas, and through research projects such as this, the missing pieces are starting to fall into place.

The results of the research so far are throwing up some great findings, which were the trigger for the development of this Manta Ray Specialty Course as we would like to share the incredible insights with you.  In addition to new behaviors being discovered, we have also learnt a lot about two of our sites where we see Mantas regularly.  Its amazing to see that two very distinct populations can be found at Fushivaru and at Dhanifaru.

The course, which runs out of Kuredu,  is currently aimed towards snorkelers and includes a full day snorkel trip in the price.  The full day trip heads down to the south of the atoll, where, in addition to some great snorkel sites, regular checks are made at Dhanifaru throughout the day to see whether there is any feeding activity taking place.  If there are Mantas present, be ready to grab your mask, fins and snorkel and check out what you heard on the course!

Check out the special Manta Ray Specialty Course page for more information.