Corals

Coral Bleaching in the Maldives.

There is a lot of talk about coral bleaching happening in the Maldives.

I was in Huvadhu Atoll last week and went snorkeling and diving. Had a good look at the reefs and did find coral bleaching on several spots.

As in this picture You see one bleached coral on top of one that is not bleached
There where lots of scattered bleached corals on the reef on different depths and in mostly individual corals I did not see large patches of bleached corals as in 1998.

More like this a bunch of healthy corals and a single bleached coral in there
As this one to....

And this one a big table coral with a bleached branching coral on its base

As you can see this is about 2 meters depth the branching coral is in the table corals shadow.....

I had a temperature gauge and the water temperature was close to 31C (30.7C) in 3 meters depth.
during my period there I had a beautiful sunny day and a day clouded with rain, the rainy season had started and there was a western wind. The locals informed me that there was a few weeks of good weather and calm seas so UV influence might have a part of it as well. But the bleaching is over a wide variation of depth.
In deferent locations.


Overall the reef is healthy and if the temperature drops I believe it will recover fully.

Time flies...

Yeah it does

What topics shall I write about?

I have some ideas and will try this out give me some time to polish them up and I will come back here soon.

Finally????

Gee I looked at my blog and I did not realize I have not posted since 2008 , two years ago...

Man what does time fly....

Will see if I can get some time to write again

28th March 2008

We all had a good night sleep. There is somthing in favour for staying
inside well protected harbour.
We sailed for an hour before the dive and that was a strange one. The
currents where all over the place. We noticed we ae more up north the
fish live is good but the coral is not as good as in Huvadu Atoll.

Sailed on to Meemu Atol and did a dive near Kurali Island there was an
out going current but the vis was good this time cruised over a sandy
bottom with lots of garden eels sticking there heads up in the current
and disappearing as soon as we approached. Turned to get back at the
reef wall and that had a lot of fish live and variation. Tried to snap
to large box fish but they stayed out of range.

Had an hour dive everybody enjoyed it.

Sailed on to the Norh of Meemu and anchored near Mulaku Kandu and did
a late afternoon dive it was already twilight underwater and a lot of
murray eels where pocking there heads up out of there holes. The where
easy to photograph. The current was here strange also but it was a
very interesting dive.

27th March 2008

We reached Laamu Atll this early morning and did a dive on the outside
reef. Was very nice.
You can immediately see the difference. In landscape and fish live.
There was plenty of corals but nor so abundant as in Ghaafu Alif /
Gaafu Dhaal.

We did two more dives in the channels the second one was with a nice
strong current in to the Atoll and we used our reef hooks to stay in
the current. and waited for some sharks but they did not come. There
was plenty of other big fish large Barracudas Large groupers and jack
fish.
But no Sharks.

After the third dive we kept moving to Thaa Atoll because we got low
on fuel and the captain wonted to refill and that could only be done
in Thaa Atoll. We spent the night in the Habour of Thaa Guraidhoo.

26th March 2008

What a day......

We dived an other new site Hadahaa Thila. It was a marvelous place
great corals again black coral table corals and even soft corals.
Loads of fish as well and lots of anemones with the little Nemo's.

I got some real good pictures
.

25th March 2008

Today we used the diving dhoni to travel to the dive sites. The boat
needed repairs and will stay in Thinadhoo Lagoon.

First dive was not so good I jumped in the wrong spot and the current
us across the channel over damaged corals when we reached the channel
entrance the coral was good again and there where some giant
Barracudas and a very big school of small ones.

23th March 2008

Today we started sailing back to Thinadhoo, we did an early morning
dive on Kuredu kandu, north of Nilandu .

It gets a bit of a repetition but the diving is good here great coral
cover and schools of fish.

After morning dive started sailing back to Thinadhoo. Tomorrow one
guest has to fly back to Male. So we need to be back on the east side.
On the way did an new reef which was very nice. Got some good shotsof
black coral.Jumped quick on the island to walk on the beach.
Sailed on in the east direction and reached Thinadhoo in the early
afternoon.
Went to the channel and did our last dive.
Current was outgoing so vis was a bit disturbed but it was a great
dive again. lots of fish and again good corals. A large green turtle
was resting under a big carl block and swam away when he noticed us.
He was big.

Had a walk around Thinadhoo in the evening did some shopping.

23th March 2008

Today we started sailing back to Thinadhoo, we did an early morning
dive on Kuredu kandu, north of Nilandu .

It gets a bit of a repetition but the diving is good here great coral
cover and schools of fish.

After morning dive started sailing back to Thinadhoo. Tomorrow one
guest has to fly back to Male. So we need to be back on the east side.
On the way did an new reef which was very nice and jumped quick on the
island to walk on the beach.

22nd March 2008

This was along and satisfying day.

We did three good dives first one was Nilandu Chanel north with a good
current coming in and there where some sharks, grey reef and white
tip. Coral cover was great and big schools of fish. I saw 2 eagle rays
passing over.
Second dive was an easer one the current had died down a bit and a lot
of fish again a family of Napoleon and again great coral cover. After
the dive we sailed with the dive dhoni to Hadahaa for lunch we had a
look around on the resort and where served a splendid lunch in boobs
cafe. There was a big choice of food and we all eat to much. We toke
a little siesta before diving. We sailed 15 minutes to the east to a
shallow reef and did a real easy dive there no current and not to
deep. The coral cover and variation was phenomenal with a lot of small
fish this was a real nursery for a lot of fish.

We where back on the safari boat at about 17.00 hrs.

We relaxed a bit and at night time the crew had organized a Bodu Beru
group to come on the boat.
This was a nice demonstration of some locale music / culture.