Maldives -Whale Sharks and other sharks

[eudon]

Diving around the popular Ari Atolls will give you a very good chance of seeing a whale shark at Maamigili Beiru. Our first week, we only had a glimpse of one, but our second week, we had a very friendly whale shark. Here are some pictures:

Eudon

 

[eudon]

A highlight of a trip down to the equator in Maldives, is the chance to dive in more remote spots and to see large sharks. Gaafu Alifu has 2 great channel dives and here you can see large grey reef sharks in large schools, and sometimes... a bit more.

The grey reef sharks down south, get large. This one, with attendant trevally and remora, appears to be very pregnant or just had a very large meal.

Grey reef (or sometimes called black tail sharks i think) sometimes have white tips, but are easily distinguished by its more typical "shark" like appearance and bulk. Unlike the white tip which is more slender.

Both white tips and grey reef mingle in large schools at Gaafu Alifu...

... in very large schools ....

Eudon

 

[eudon]

Hammerheads can be seen with some regularity at Rashdoo. The early morning deep dives there can bring you into visibility of schooling scalloped hammerheads. Its deep, and the hammerheads dont usually come close. But further south, we ran into solo Great Hammerheads up close! Twice! I was lucky enough to be near the 2nd shark when we sighted it, but like with the previous sighting, the Hammer came really close but it zoomed off as soon as it heard a shaker, tankbanger, a pointer tapping or a strobe go off. I wasnt anywhere fast enough, so no photos for me. But i did manage to pinch a photo from Wen Ming. (Thanks!)

NOT MY WORK.

Eudon

 

[eudon]

Oh and i post some photos of the boat as well. Check it out at my pbase site in my sig below.

Eudon

 

[antacid]

what the bleeeehhhhhhhhhhhh!

so shiok! i still have to wait 4 months..
))=

do you reckon a magic filter would have helped your WS shots?

 

[howeikwok]

Niicccceeeee, jealoussssss.... :bsmilie:

 

[hetfieldpaul90]

sweet!

 

[pumpkinrella]

VERY PRETTY!! the visibility is so awesome. so are the massive creatures.. hope to head there to dive one day soon too!

 

[diver-hloc]

Wow.... Whale Shark :thumbsup::bigeyes:

 

[kuanwk]

Wow.... Whale Shark :thumbsup::bigeyes:

wow, spotted guppies comes in those sizes now?! 8P

 

[lovells19]

nice.. i love swimming with the whale sharks

 

[Darcy.Zhou]

WOOOOOOW... very brave shot;p

 

[biggrey]

wow! so lucky! when i was there in dec last year not much spottin... saw a baby whale shark but only for like a min b4 it swam too deep for us to follow n the school of sharks! awesome!! haiz wish i was bk there!!! haha

 

[eudon]

Darcy, not brave lah. Grey Sharks are very safe, if not a little shy. I would be worried with a school of Tiger Sharks, which have been sighted solo in these waters with some regularity.

Antacid, not sure about the magic filter. The water visibility was good, but some shots maybe too deep for the filter. I think even with good sunlight and visibility you need to be about 20m or shallower? Most shots were at 30m.

As with most diving, a good local dive guide usually makes the difference between a good and a great dive. PM me if anyone is interested in going and i';ll keep you updated on a 2010 trip.

Eudon

 

[eleveninth]

wow. really nice stuff!

 

[iMac08]

I notice in pic 1 your friend has no dive gear on. what depth is he in?he can actually hold his breath for so long?I have seen such pictures in magazine but always wonder how deep and how long a man can go

I'm drooling at your pictures man...since learning diving so many years ago..i haven spotted these babies before....and you are damn brave to dive in area known to have tiger shark loiterring around....

What a great dive site!!!