Day 3, the 1st dive of the day was at Dhigu Thila in the Baa atoll. The name of this dive point means “long” in Dhivehi, Maldivian language. There is a long long reef from the east to the west, no one can dive all the way in one dive, as it’s named. We immediately found an Alfred Manta Ray passing by. Then, saw the schools of Indian Bannerfish and Collare Butterflyfish. Especially I like the cute endemic Indian Bannerfish, which has a long eye rushes. After the 1st dive, we moved to the north and reached to the #Raa atoll. The 2nd dive was at Kudathulhaadhoo Thila. There were many overhangs and interesting terrain. The Cowtail Stingray and Dogtooth Tunas were seen while we drifted. The 3rd dive was at Kottefaru Thila. The color you could see turned all blue as the school of Neon Fusiliers were around, and it turned all yellow as the school of Yellowback Fusiliers came. Interesting. The dance show of Maldive Anemonefish was held at the main reef. The 4th dive was at Korrefaru Out. A big wall faced to the open sea. There were some overhangs, which had variety of rare species, such as Indian Butterflyfish. We normally can find this guy only at the deep ocean or this kind of the place out into the open sea. That’s how rare to see this Indian Butterflyfish. And we were lucky to see three of them! Then, we found the mixed species of Threespot Angelfish and Indian Smoke Angelfish. It used to be called Armitage Angelfish. And what I should mention here especially was the Pink Coral! It is very rare to see those very healthy Pink Corals in anywhere else even in the Maldives. Hope they will stay growing up just like now, not get destroyed in the future. The air temperature was 26-31 deg.C. The water temperature was 28-29 deg.C. The 3mm or 5 mm wetsuit was recommended. The visibility was 10-30m. To be continued…
