New Year Diving/snorkeling Maldives

[Chilli]

Happy New Year to all!!!

I'm relaxing here on a beach house on the maldives. Was yesterday and today snorkeling and shoot some pix












I start tomorrow my OWD diving license and hope to see more sps and shark's
The sps I saw here were mostly dead. Except for a few small ones that start to grow again, I hope they will grow fast and big.

 

[Peace River]

That’s interesting - thanks for sharing! Good luck on the rest of your trip!

 

[Chilli]

That’s interesting - thanks for sharing! Good luck on the rest of your trip!

Thanks!

 

[chefjpaul]

Awesome!
Good luck on your certification.
I'll be back in Belize Saturday... blue hole.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Very nice !!!

 

[Daniel92481]

That’s amazing! If you get a chance, test the water! Enjoy!

 

[malacoda]

I got my SSI Open Water diving certification on the Maldivian atoll of Halaveli 2 years ago. When you go out on the boat to the dive sites, you should see a LOT more coral and fish than are typically present when snorkeling around the resort islands. Less people touching/bumping the rock and reef life. (Will depend on if any bleaching events occurred recently though.)

You love it. Enjoy!

 

[Ben Pedersen]

Wish I was there!

 

[nickkohrn]

That sounds and looks incredible!

 

[jace]

This is something I've always wanted to do! Thanks for sharing! Great pics.

 

[Terri Caton]

I got certified in open water too. So great! That was many, many, many moons (ok, years) ago

@chefjpaul Dove that blue hole once. Second time I was there stayed on the boat. It was a long time ago though and was very cool. There used to be a Lot of reef sharks both in the shallows and at depth. Too short a dive at depth and literally nothing to see when you are hanging for decompression. Plus 3/4 of the people got narced. The poor dive masters spent the entire time diving down and pulling people back up. Crazy.

 

[KrisReef]

Nice pictures from the shallow reef. Any idea what the water temperature is at that location?

Can't wait to see pictures from your dives on the outer reef. I think you will be very busy trying to frame the corals there.

Thank you very much for sharing your trip photos!

 

[A Toadstool Leather]

If you dive on the reef crest the coral cover and diversity increases by a huge margin. I was at heron island a few months ago and saw the most beautiful acropora colonies I have seen. Its a shame habitats such as these are becoming more and more degraded over time

 

[Chilli]

Thanks so much for the many comments!!!
Today was diving lesson in the pool.... Boring but important
Later I was snorkeling. That is really unbelievable!!! I think mostly because I'm a passionate seewater aquarist. So many tangs and other fishes. It's like in a really big big aquarium. I love it!
Only the corals are not really healthy, but its often to see some new brilliant corals grow.

 

[KrisReef]

The corals in the shallow lagoon photos look brown & stressed. Presumably, the water quality and environment near the beach is suboptimal for coral growth. The temperatures are likely elevated, the hardscapes are covered in coral sand dust from the beach erosion and very few corals are growing on the tops of the reef. At the same time, the hardscaped reef crevice-channels have a much higher abundance of hard corals growing on the walls where presumably the dust doesn't collect there so corals have an easier time settling and growing perhaps?

The lack of algae is interesting. I wonder what the phosphorus and nitrate levels are in that area? (Perhaps you might bring a water sample back for testing when you get home?) Either the tangs are totally efficient at grazing the algae too zero or the nutrients are limiting algal growth which would also impact coral abundance? Or perhaps you are not taking pictures in any degraded areas you see?

Thanks for a second days photo report! I really enjoy looking at the photos you are posting. I learned to scuba dive in Huntington beach and don't have any pictures from those days,

Truly glad you are snapping and posting!

 

[A Toadstool Leather]

The coral cover is always lower in the lagoons. The coral you posted look perfectly healthy to me, most of the wild coral I saw were brown, yellow, or red.

One thing you should do is listen in to parrotfish scraping algae off the rocks. It is surprisingly loud.

 

[Jeeperz]

This is cool. More pics please.

 

[Scrubber_steve]

That’s amazing! If you get a chance, test the water! Enjoy!

I snorkeled the GBR in 2017. Took a drink bottle of Hook Island water home with me to run through the 'tests'. God I'm a reef tank nerd

 

[Jeeperz]

Any pics to share of snorkeling the gbr?

 

[Scrubber_steve]

Any pics to share of snorkeling the gbr?

NO