Day 5 on the Black Pearl

Dive 1 (morning)

Dhigu Thila, Baa Atoll

Our first dive of day 5 started on Dhigu Thila.Dhigu in Maldivian means long. It is quite long and narrow. So we had quite a distance to drift and cover in the small current. We had overhangs with Soft Coral and Sea Fans. fish life was excellent. This is really a macro photographers haven. Came across black coral bushes where Long Nose Hawkfish was living, Whip Coral Goby, Morays, Anthias, Scorpionfish. Some of the overhangs were interesting with a lot of creatures. We came across a huge Flower Grouper which was not the least bit annoyed or shy about our presence. This was an excellent dive to start the day with.

Dive 2 (noon)

Nelivaru Haa, Baa Atoll

This place was teaming with life. There was creatures of all sizes so was wondering which lens to take. One of the downsides of using a SLR is having to stick with the lens you choose for the whole dive. With a compact, usually you can switch the wet lenses in the dive. At the current side of the reef there was a huge school of Silver Sprat. They were circling around us and pretty soon we couldn’t see what was ahead. It was a wall of silver rain. A school of Blue Fin Trevally was chasing them. They were quite strategic. Tuna also joined in the hunt. They seem to appear and disappear suddenly. There was the chance to see Mantas on this site as well which was occasional but we did not come across them on this dive. Lots of tiny little juvenile fish on this site like that of the Groupers and Parrotfishes.  A lot of Gobies with there partner shrimps were around.

Dive 3 (afternoon)

Horubadhoo Thila/Dhigali Haa, Baa Atoll

This site is the first declared Marine Protected Area in Baa Atoll. It has a healthy population of Black Coral bushes. Parts of the reef top were covered with sea anemone with both the Maldivian Anemonefish and Clarks Anemonefish. This is an ideal place or small critters such as Gobies, Lionfish, Nudibranchs, etc. The reef top had varieties of hard and soft coral growing. Eels and Scorpionfish were hiding amongst them.