The Maldives on the Manthiri
There are various places in the world that are renowned for large fish action and the Maldives is one of them. It probably is not the best known and it's reputation may be currently suffering because of the problem with dead and bleached coral, but nevertheless the Maldives still provide an interesting dive location. In April of 2002 I decided to find out whether this was a prime diving location or whether the coral damage was so significant that it needed rest and restoration before it was again one of the better diving areas of the world.
Getting There
Maldives
Getting to the Maldives from the United States involves traveling to one of the gateway cities of Los Angeles or San Francisco and then going on to Singapore, then Male. There were minimal hassles with baggage despite camera gear and dive gear totaling 180+ lbs. Airport security was variable depending on the city and country, and while inconsistent, seemed pretty effective. As usual for a trip spanning multiple time zones, I allowed an extra day in Singapore on the front end to allow my body to acclimate.
The Maldives archipelago is composed of 1,190 islands lying in the equatorial Indian Ocean 300 miles southwest of India. The friendly people of the Maldives welcome tourists as a primary source of revenue and there is virtually no crime or endemic disease to be concerned with. The government is stable and riots that are a concern elsewhere are almost unthinkable. The primary gateway city into the Maldives is Male. The airport in Male is adequate and reasonably well organized, clean, and efficiently run. There were no hassles with customs for me, as they seem very accustomed to divers. Once in Male, the original plan was to get off the plane at 10 PM and go to the boat. However, for some reason plans changed and we were taken to a hotel to get some sleep. The hotel was adequate, but not wonderful. It did, however, have air conditioning.
The Manthiri
The Manthiri is an 85 foot live aboard dive boat which was built in 1994. It is designed to carry a maximum of 12 passengers in six cabins (4 twins and 2 doubles) and has a crew of 11. The crew is very enthusiastic and does a really good job at whatever their particular area of expertise happens to be. The cabins are not overly spacious but the bathrooms are more generous than found on most live aboard dive boats. One of the distinguishing characteristics of the Manthiri compared to Peter Hughes or Aggressor boats is the spaciousness of the living areas. The air conditioned main salon has a complete entertainment center and a small camera area that was consumed by three avid photographers/videographers. The sit down dining area is composed of two tables each handling six persons. The extra living space is created by the interesting way of doing the diving. Rather than have the diving gear on the main boat, the diving gear and compressor (but not the guests' camera equipment) are stowed on an adjunct boat called a dhoni. This means that the Manthiri's stated capacity of twelve people has more useful room than its 85 foot length would normally imply.
All meals are sit down affairs served by a waiter and the portions are allocated with no real allowance for seconds or thirds. There is an early morning pre-dive mini breakfast served before 7 AM and this is usually fruit or cereal. The real breakfast is served after the first dive and is composed of eggs, pancakes or french toast usually accompanied by a non-pork meat. The remainder of the meals had two entrees including meat or pasta along with fish caught on board by the crew. I would consider the food to be adequate but not sensational and was more Americanized than Maldivian. Some guests were disappointed and others were reasonably pleased but not ecstatic.
Lounge/Eating Area
The Diving Operation
Since all diving is done from the dhoni, the diving protocol is fairly easy. Get on the dhoni, put on your wetsuit or other protection, and just before getting to the site, get into the remainder of your gear. Entry is from multiple locations: front and back on both right and left sides of the dhoni. Buddy diving is not required, no depth limits are enforced but group diving is encouraged. Time limitations on the dives are encouraged but not enforced, at about one hour. The Manthiri uses steel 94 cubic foot tanks so weight belts were optional for some of us. Dive alerts and safety sausages are incredibly important as it is easy to get separated from the group and the currents can be fierce. We had several instances where one person got separated and pickup took a bit of visual acuity.
The three man dhoni crew and the two dive masters make sure all equipment is properly set up so after the first time, you do not have to touch your equipment. The crew hands cameras to the divers and takes them back at the end of the dive dunking them in the fresh water rinse tank. If there were a large concentration of photographers on a trip the dhoni would be very crowded. As it was, with only 9 divers out of a possible twelve the dhoni had no excess space to speak of. The dhoni is covered to protect from inclement weather or from the sun. Trips to the dive sites varied from 5 to 20 minutes with the Manthiri always staying in protected waters.
The Diving
Diving in the Maldives is seasonal. October through April are the prime diving season. The prime months for Mantas and Whale Sharks are August through November with the plankton causing reduced visibility. Best time for large animals is January through March. In April of 2002, the water was mostly warm, about 82 degrees Fahrenheit, and visibility was excellent. Theoretically the water temperature is warm all year long.
Friendly Napoleon Wrasse
Over the course of the ten days, there were 34 dives most of which were unique with a very small number of repeat dives being offered. This was both good news and bad news since the dive site distribution was anywhere from excellent to ordinary. There are several types of dive that are offered. The Maldivian terms for these dives are: Giris were shallow pinnacles within the protected inner reef; Tilas were deep pinnalces lying wither within or outside the fringing islands of the atoll; Kandus were deep channels between two islands forming part of the outer perimeter of the atoll; Fahrrus were walls along the outer, ocean side of the fringing island; Farus were submerged reefs along the outer islands; and Fushis were exposed reefs along the outer islands. To my way of thinking, the pinnacles dives were the best. The channel dives were the most susceptible to large currents and hence larger animals. The divemasters acknowledged that they had different grades of dive site ranging from a top of "A" to the worst of "D". I would say that 6 of the dive sites were rated "A" and the remainders, "B" and "C".
Some of the animals seen included: copious numbers of Moray Eels, Napoleon Wrasse, Large schools of Sweetlips, Silvertip, White tip, and grey reef sharks, numerous turtles "high" from eating psychedelic sponges, Emperor and other angelfish, eagle rays, devil rays, and lots and lots of fish. Clouds of bannerfish (Heniochus), Fusiliers, Snappers, and other fish adorned the reef. Did I mention we saw lots and lots of fish?
Emperor Angelfish
The hard corals were in abysmal shape although there were signs of regeneration. One of the positive points was that the Tridacna clams were still flourishing, and since these use zooanthellae for nourishment, there is hope for regeneration over time of the other hard corals. There are, however, healthy tubastrea, gorgonia, soft corals and mushroom corals and there were buds on the hard coral indicating recovery.
Turtle
Weather
In April of 2002, the weather was sunny most of the time with about 2 hours of rain over a period of ten days. Seas were reasonably calm.
Bottom Line
Ok, would I return to the Maldives and dive again from the Manthiri? Yes, however there are many other places I would return first.