Cybercaptain

Tuesday, March 06, 2012

Diving Club Med corner

My deckhand Pardeep had not been here and we decided to revisit this site. This time though we swam South instead of inside the atoll so we started near the corner. We weren't disappointed, met with Napoleon Wrasse & turtles plus the host of the small fish in the coral garden. I must have seen the biggest grouper ever in my life when I peeked under a rock formation, it sat there for awhile until it noticed it was observed and then it hid better out of sight. I managed to get a picture but it is obscured by the soldierfish, if you look closely you can see the eyes and mouth in the dark background...

BA chart 3323, inset

Yellowback fusilier

Collared butterflyfish & Shadowfin soldierfish

Oriental sweetlips

Imperial angelfish

Lined surgeonfish

Shadowfin soldierfish

Moorish idol

Soldierfish, note the grouper in the background

Yellowhead butterflyfish, Powder-blue surgeonfish, Black pyramid butterflyfish

Regal angelfish

Seacucumber, Tiger cardinalfish, Moorish Idol & Soldierfish

Sailfin tang, Bullethead parrotfish (?)

Blacktip grouper

Gold striped emperor and a lonely Kashmir snapper

Orangefin emperor

Trumpetfish

Titan triggerfish

White-spotted grouper

Fish at table coral

Neon fusiliers

Monday, March 05, 2012

Diving Hans Hass place

As we had tallied through the closest dive sites we ventured now a bit further afield, not going overboard but staying inside Male' atoll. We headed southwest from our anchorage towards Viligili Island and next to it is a reef named Gulhi Falhu. It is now being reclaimed from the West. In the middle of the reef on the Ocean side is the "Hans Hass" diving spot that is designated as a protected area. When I was in Maldives earlier my local guide told me that this will house the existing industries on Male' and they will be relocated on Gulhi Falhu.

Anyway, we arrived again early morning and found another dive boat there already but there is aplenty at sea so we made ourselves ready and jumped in. The current was against us and a bit heavier than expected but to agree with the diveplan we kept on going West as instructed our surface boat. There was plenty of pelagics, saw also a Napoleon Wrasse in the distance but the most impressive sight was the overhangs, especially the last one that when I looked under it it gave the impression of a cathedral.

BA chart 3323

An overhang

Whitetip soldierfish

Eyestripe surgeonfish

Vermilion rock cod

The wall

Diana's hogfish

Soldierfish above clam

Orange anthia, male

Orange anthia, female

Boomerang triggerfish

Duskyfin rock cod

Yellowtail wrasse

Lionfish

Yellowfin surgeonfish (?)

Napoleon Maori wrasse

Powder-blue surgeonfish

Checkerboard wrasse

Peacock rock cod

Powder-blue surgeonfish

Sailfin tang

Spotted unicornfish

Almost at the surface

Checkerboard wrasse

Yellowhead butterflyfish

Sunday, March 04, 2012

Diving off Hulhule

As we were running out of dive sites close by we decided to give Hulhule a go even-though Tim Godfrey had awarded the site only one star in his guide book. Off we went a bit NE of the entrance to the atoll and headed south. There was no current to mention about but I could feel the wave surge down to 20m. The surroundings were rocky and I could see a lot of groupers hiding under the formations. We swam along and just about when we were about to ascend as we were down on air to 50bars I saw something in the distance. After a few seconds a school of Humphead parrotfish appeared with some ten fish in the school. These huge fish were very shy and did not come close, I managed to get off a few shots but then we had to go up. Definitely the highlight of the dive.