Here is the Christmas trip report! Day 1, the trip was started with a check dive at Maagiri Rock in the North Male atoll. There was almost no current, suitable condition for a check dive. My routine here is checking up on the Palette Surgeonfish juvenile. It’s healthily grown up by a little! At the main reef the regular Bluestriped Snappers welcomed us with a beautiful formation. The 2nd dive was at Maaya Thila in the North Ari atoll. It was cute to see the couple of Golden Trevallies getting cleaned. We saw many of Whitetip Reef Sharks taking a nap at the sand area. The 3rd dive was at Maayafushi Lagoon as a night manta dive. We successfully attracted an Alfred Manta, which hovered around us again and again. Exciting!
Day 2, it was cloudy. The surface was very calm just like a big mirror spread. The 1st dive was at Fish Head. The Grey Reef Sharks were in the deeper side at the beginning but came up to the same level as our depth as the current gradually got stronger. Some of them was getting cleaned at the cleaning station with their mouth wide opened. The 2nd dive was at Moofushi Kandu in the South Ari atoll, which was well known as a Manta point in the dry season. At the edge of the channel, there were many of Grey Reef Sharks swimming back and forth. The Yellowback Fusiliers were pouring like a shower! And we were very lucky that we could see total 8 of Manta Rays dancing at a time at the Mantas’ cleaning station. The 3rd dive was at Kudarah Thila. The big number of Bluestriped Snappers were there as if there was a big yellow carpet. Surprisingly Tiera Batfish was gathered over a hundred. They were very friendly to us that they got very closer.
The water temperature was 26-31 deg.C. The water temperature was 28-29 deg.C. The visibility was 10-30 meters. To be continued…
