A beautiful close encounter with Bottlenose dolphins

I didnt think today was going to get any better after yesterday seeing dolphins underwater followed by my first encounter with 2 sailfish.... how wrong was I. One of the many reasons why I love my job, you just never know what to expect….

Today was perfect weather for snorkeling. The sea was like glass, you didn’t really even have to get in the water as you could see everything the reef had to offer just by looking down from the sailing dhoni. It was like being on a glass bottom boat. However, the water is so inviting you just have to get in. This is why in my opinion the best time of year to come to the Maldives is always February and March, the sea can be like glass most days with visibility for miles, its postcard perfect.

Any day when it’s like this you know the snorkeling is going to be nice, its so peaceful under the water and above. I have a turtle adventure snorkel trip with 6 guests. Turtle Adventure is always amazing, I haven’t blogged about this trip yet but I will soon. It’s an unique and beautiful experience as you get to see these ancient marine reptiles up close. Often you can see lots of turtles as the reef we go to is a feeding ground. They are generally very friendly, coming up to breathe right in front of you, this alone is enough to blow the guests away as you really do feel like you’re swimming with them in their natural environment. Today we had one turtle, her name is Reina, yes lots of them have names as I recognize them by their shell patterns and also by their unique scale pattern on each side of the head. Often we see the same ones most trips. Anyway, Reina followed us all the way up the reef just swimming right under us. It was lovely. It had been a very nice snorkel, 6 turtles and 2 sharks and then we hear a shout from the Captain, “Dolphins”!!! They were at the other end of the reef and we could see their fins sticking out of the water, even though they were far away it looked like there were lots in the water. It didn’t really matter how far away they were, I think anyone would have started swimming towards them, what is it about dolphins that everybody loves, was it the series flipper or watching documentaries on tv, or maybe just remembering all those times you had seen them at marine parks, jumping and flipping, their charismatic smiling faces looking at you. However, seeing dolphins in the wild, in their natural environment is just something else!

As we got closer they disappeared from the surface and went under. I told everyone to keep looking down, and then, there they all were, swimming right under us. I dived down and was shocked about how many there were, at least 40 or 50, all tossing and turning below us, awesome does not come close to a sight like this, I was blown away, so my guests must have been too. You could hear them as well chatting amoung themselves, don’t really know how to describe how dolphins sound, its like a faint high-pitched whistle with clicking sounds. We followed them for 15 minutes out into the blue. Some of them were definitely checking us out as well, they were turning their heads and looking straight out us, it was beautiful. I was lucky enough to get some photos of them, these are by far the best pictures I have of dolphins, and this was definitely one of my top dolphin moments. So here are my best photos, I’m sure they will make you smile, I haven’t stopped smiling all day.

My First Sailfish...

I saw my first sailfish underwater today and I even managed to take a photo. I say underwater as I have seen sailfish before but hanging from a deep sea fishing boat so not quite the same.  Far nicer to see them in the water. These powerful fish are actually the fastest fish in the ocean, reaching speeds of 68 miles per hour. They get their name from the spectacular dorsal fin which stretches nearly the entire length of their bodies. They also have an elongated bill, which forms a distinctive spear, a bit like swordfish or marlin, so they are often referred to as billfish. 

I was lucky enought to see not one but two of them. I had just come up from a dive and I saw something jump out of the water, the next minute when I looked down I saw both of them just hovering under me in the blue. I didnt really know what they were going to do and I thought they would just shoot off out of sight but it seemed like they were just looking at me as well. Their sail was up so maybe they felt threatened or maybe they had been using their sails to herd small fish to eat. They like to eat silvery fishes like anchovies and sardines and also squid. 

I dont know too much about these silvery fishes, I'm more of a coral reef fish biologist but these guys were impressive to see. They can grow to more than 3 meters and weigh up to 100 kilos!! What was even nicer was just before the sailfish i saw a pod of about 10 bottlenose dolphins under the water as well, this doesnt happen too often either so all in all a very good day under the sea. You just never know what you might see..... :) 

An Octopus Tale….

I was greeted by an octopus this morning on my turtle adventure snorkel. A nice surprise as I don’t normally see these strange alien looking creatures. For me they belong in space rather than under the sea, but the oceans are filled with lots of weird and wonderful creatures, so why not blog about octopus. 

Octopus are invertebrates which means they have no back bone. They are classified in the mollusk family, and many mollusks, like clams for instance, have no brains. Octopus on the other hand are actually very intelligent, in the invertebrate kingdom they have the biggest brain to body ratio. Researchers who study octopuses are convinced that these animals have developed intelligence, emotions, and even individual personalities!

Octopus are quite remarkable creatures. They have no bones in their body so they can squeeze into tight places. They have 3 hearts and 8 arms which are covered in hundreds of suckers that feel as well as taste. They have a sharp parrot like beak and a tongue covered with teeth. Octopus can also bite and most have neurotoxic, flesh-dissolving venom!! They can also shape shift and change colour, and to escape predators they squirt ink. Most interestingly if you chop off an octopus’s arm they will grow another one back!

Octopus are also very caring parents, well the female is! When she is ready to mate, she releases a chemical into the water that attracts males. They follow this chemical to the female, where they will often fight one another for the right to mate with the female. The same chemical that attracts the males stops the males from eating the female! Yes octopuses are known to eat each other! Once mating is over the female builds a den and will lay tens of thousands of eggs which hang from the roof of her den. She then spends the next few months caring for her eggs. She ensures that bacteria and algae do not grow on them, and she blows water across them to ensure a constant oxygen supply. When the eggs hatch the offspring swim to the surface and the mother crawls out of the den and dies.  How sad, they neglect to eat during the time spent taking care of their eggs, eventually dying of starvation. The male will also only live for a few months after mating. In fact, the lifespan of a octopus is relatively quite short and some species live only for 6 months.

I have always loved octopuses. So cool to watch, changing colours right in front of you, there big beady eyes watching your every move. Their color-changing ability can also be used to communicate with or warn other octopuses.  They can also use the muscles in their skin to change the texture of their mantle to achieve a greater camouflage. They turn white and smooth if they are relaxed and red and spiky if they become agitated. As soon as they know they have been spotted they dart into a hole and squeeze themselves in waiting for you go. Their main defense is to hide or not to be seen at all, either that or a fast escape. You may have to wait a long time until they finally decide to come out. This is definitely one item of seafood that I do not eat and I love seafood (only the sustainable kind of course), anyway how could I possibly eat something that’s so intelligent, it seems unfair.  So I have left you with a few photos of the octopus I met this morning. He turned from white to red so obviously not as happy to see me as I was to see him.

                                       Octopus out and about before he knew he was spotted

Fled to a hole to hide and looks slightly agitated 

                                          But then he calmed down and popped his head out

Manta Season is here...

Finally the manta’s have arrived at Reethi Rah, yayyy…. For those of you who haven’t see a Manta ray or don’t know what one is, don’t worry, I will explain what these majestic animals are and go from there…..

Manta Rays are cartilaginous ‘elasmobranch’ fish. This means they are close relatives of all sharks and rays, and  therefore have a skeleton made of cartilage, not bone. Most fish in the oceans are actually bony fish, leaving only about 1100 cartilaginous fish; 500 species which are sharks and 550 species of ray.There is a huge variety and abundance of ray species around the world; stingrays, skates, eagle rays, electric rays. The majority of these are bottom dwellers, whose broad flattened bodies are superbly adapted to this way of life. Manta rays are actually part of the stingray group belonging to the family Mobulidae. As the name suggests stingrays have a barb at the base of their tail which they use for defense against predators. Manta rays don’t actually have a barb, instead they rely on their speed and size to elude predation.

The manta ray is the largest of all the rays. They are free swimming with huge diamond shaped bodies. They continue to swim from the time they are born until the time they die! They must keep swimming in order to keep the water flowing over their gills. There are two species of manta ray, the resident reef manta (Manta alfredi) can be up to 4m wide and the gaint oceanic omanta (Manta birostris) can be up to 7m!!! I have never seen an oceanic manta but they are here in the Maldives, they are long distance travelers spending all their time out in the open sea. In the Maldives the resident mantas are very common. They tend to stay in shallow water close to the reef with much smaller home ranges – 100s of miles as opposed to 1000s.

Manta rays are solitary animals but they come together and aggregate at feeding sites and cleaning stations. Despite their large size they feed on some of the smallest organisms in the sea known as plankton. Cephalic fins on their head unfurl to channel the water into their huge mouth, and using their gills like sieves, they filter out the plankton from the water. Mantas are known to make seasonal migrations in order to take advantage of particular abundant areas of food and at this time of year from January to April one of the places they can be found is on the West side of North male Atoll, right were Reethi Rah is located.

So far this year not many mantas have been spotted yet but this morning when I went out to our House Reef to do some work on the coral frames, I was greeted by 8 Mantas, wow, what a very nice and unexpected surprise. Manta season has finally arrived, fantastic. They were feeding on the surface and as I had my dive gear on I just lay on my back under the water and watched them glide over me. They were all around, swimming in circles to collect their food. They remind me of flying saucers for some reasons, maybe it’s their huge open mouths and their long wing-like pectoral fins slicing through the water. 

While working in the Maldives I have been lucky enough to see mantas many many times, once I was in the water with over 80 of them swimming around me. This was at a very special manta feeding spot unique to the Maldives called Hanifaru Bay in Baa Atoll. It is one of the worlds most spectacular underwater events. As you can imagine I was completely blown away by the whole experience. Anyway, it really doesn’t matter how many times you see these beautiful animals, each and every time is just as amazing as the last. They are just such fascinating and captivating creatures to watch, when you see one nothing else really matters, its just you and the mantas, time stands still! That’s what I love about my job, you just never know what you are going to see next, days can be full of surprises. Even better, this afternoon I was in the water with 2 guests putting their corals frames on the house reef when a single manta ray just happened to swim right past us!!! My guests had never seen a manta before which can be quite a scary sight if you don’t know what you're looking at, are they dangerous or harmless, will they eat me???  Especially when their huge mouths are heading right towards you. Well of course they are not dangerous, in fact they can be quite shy and swim away from you, however when there is plenty of food for them in the water, they really don’t care who is around. They almost put on a show for you, twisting and barrel rolling in the water to collect their food, you could watch them all day. My guests were so happy, they saw their very first manta, it was a wonderful sight and hopefully something they will remember forever.

The only unfortunate thing was that I didn’t have my camera with me, how gutting, I have plenty of photos of mantas but to identify them you need to take a photo of the black spot pattern on their ventral surface in between the gills. Every manta has a unique spot pattern, which can therefore be used for identification, like a human fingerprint. This enables the development of photo-id databases so ultimately you can estimate their population sizes and migration patterns. After 6 years of data collection, the Maldivian Manta Ray Project has already identified over 2300 different mantas from the Maldives, with new individuals being sighted on a regular basis. Conditions were perfect as well, I was thinking at the time maybe i could draw the spot patterns on my slate, hmmm, yeah no chance! What is even more worrying though is that in recent years, a fishery for these animals has developed with devastating effects on their populations globally, but I will blog about this another time.

For lots more interesting information on Manta Rays the please check out the Manta Trust website here. The trust was formed to coordinate global research to conserve manta rays while raising valuable awareness for these amazing animals. It’s a very impressive site and worth a look. Although I forgot my camera today I have left you with some photos of my previous manta encounters, it will give you an idea on just how impressive these animals are…..