The Island of Sharks, Fuvahmulah

21/3/23

I'm in Addu, the most southern atoll in the Maldives. This atoll is actually in the southern hemisphere at .7 below the equator.

I'm heading out on a boat at 16:00 to an island everyone who knows diving and is into adventure keeps talking about. This magical island is called Fuvahmulah. Its unique geology has made this spot a prime habitat for pelagic marine megafauna. Depending on the time of year, one can find oceanic mantas, tiger sharks, thresher sharks, mola mola, and even critically endangered scalloped hammerheads.

The ride to Fuvahmulah took roughly an hour. I was getting excited on the way because this is an island I have always wanted to visit. I'm staying at the gorgeous guest house, Ataraxis, owned by one of my friends from the Ritz Carlton.

I quickly got settled into my room and then went up to the rooftop to launch my drone to get a view of this stunning island. A slight cloud cover made it great for photos with the ocean. I love the texture of islands from the sky. The cascading palm trees, coarse white sand, and the deep blues of the ocean are all in one photo.

After I landed my drone, I headed to the beach to watch the sunset. I chose to do half board at the guest house, so dinner was at 19:30. I got some good rest before the next day as I would dive three dives.

22/3/23

I woke up to get breakfast at 6:30. Many of the dive operators here have a vehicle to pick guests up from the various guest houses on the island. I grabbed my things and headed outside for the 7 a.m. pick-up. It's roughly a 12-minute drive from Ataraxis to the harbor where the dive operators run from. I got my dive equipment and signed the various waivers before getting on the boat at 7:30.

Fuvahmulah is different from any other island in the Maldives. Most of the islands have lagoons or some form of reef break. This island is different as it just drops into the deep blue abyss. There are no lagoons or reef breaks. A sheer wall then accompanies a shallow reef. Our first dive was to the Plataeu, like an underwater tongue of rock coming out from the island on the southwestern side. This will be our deep dive right to 30 meters. The Plateau is great for pelagic wildlife such as hammerheads and oceanic mantas. I am very eager to see either one of these amazing animals. Because the currents and waves here are crazy, we made a negative entry into the water. BCD is deflated, and we immediately descended into the deep blue. It took a few minutes to adjust our ears to the descent down. This form of diving is called blue diving, where there are no visual references around you. You don’t see anything except the endless, deep blue—a person with thalassophobia’s nightmare. After a few minutes, the guides pointed, and I could see two scalloped hammerhead sharks about 10 meters in front of me. Unfortunately, the visibility isn’t great at this depth, so the GoPro couldn’t capture them.

There were also some silvertip sharks circling us. Since it was a deep dive and we had air tanks, we started our ride back to the surface feeling accomplished about the hammerhead shark sightings. We did our 3-minute safety stop and then hopped back onto the boat. Since the dive sites are so close to the harbor, the boats in Fuvahmulah return to shore for the surface interval.

Our next dive is with the tiger sharks, one of the main reasons people visit the island. The locals had an issue a long time ago because when they went fishing, they would bring in half-eaten tuna and other fish due to the abundance of tiger sharks surrounding the island. The locals started to dump the fish carcasses near the harbor, and the sharks were drawn to the stench of the fish heads. Eventually, the sharks stopped eating the tuna the fisherman were catching and just waited for the waste to be dropped. That's at least the legend they tell people. Who knows how legit it is?

We get on the boat and immediately start getting ready for the dive because it's only 5 minutes away. Dive operators get a 30-minute time slot to be with the sharks.  The divers get into position, then the boat will come in and drop a couple of tuna heads. One guide leads the divers, and the other guide maneuvers the tiger sharks away from the divers with the tuna heads. They place the heads under rocks, so the sharks continue to circle the area.

We jumped into the water, and immediately, you could see the silhouette of tiger sharks off in the distance and below us in the deep. What a thrilling feeling that was. Not once did I feel anxious or afraid to be where I was. It was pure excitement. I positioned myself in a great spot on the edge, about 3 meters from the rock pile where the tuna head would be placed.  The guides put the tuna heads down. Keeping your head on a swivel, you could see tiger sharks coming from all directions. What an amazing experience to see these animals in this way. They have no care in the world for you and are gentle giants. Big sharks are curious, so come to check you out and leave. I had a couple of sharks swim in my direction and, at the last second, move their heads upwards to go right under me. I even had to press myself down several times and look around to see if anyone saw that.

After our 30 minutes was up, we pulled off from the spot, surfaced, and got on the boat to head back to shore for an hour and a half interval. The next dive would be for a species of shark I have always wanted to see: the thresher shark. Three species of thresher sharks are on the planet; they are the only sharks that don’t use their mouth to hunt. Instead, these sharks have super long tails that they whip into schools of fish to hit and stun them, then swim around and eat the stunned fish. Thresher sharks live in the deeper parts around the island and are more frequently seen around the 50-60 meter mark under the water. We hit the water and sank to about 35 meters to look for any thresher sharks underneath us. The lead guide starts to tap his tank, and I look at him, and he points above us; I turn my head, and to my surprise, swimming at about 25 meters deep was a thresher shark. They are absolutely incredible sharks. The tail is stunning as it sways back and forth in the deep blue. The shark gracefully moved past us, and I got a nice silhouette photo. It was around 10 meters from me, so the GoPro shot wasn’t the best, but it still counts. They have one of the goofiest faces I have ever seen in a shark. After that magical moment, we continued drifting with the current and I found myself around stunning coral blocks before we did our 3-minute safety stop and got out of the water to finish our day of diving.

That afternoon, I went out to dinner with some of the other people from the boat because we all stayed in the same place. I got some drone shots of the surrounding area and Hotel Ataraxis and then headed to a get-together at a friend's house to discuss science.

23/3/23 

I woke up and went down for breakfast with my gear. I got into the truck to take us to the harbor with the other people also going from the hotel. At 7:30, we got onto the boat to get ready and head out for our deep dive. Since the hammers are around this year, we would do the same dive we did the other day. We made a negative entry into the open abyss and sank to 35 meters, but I got a case of vertigo and had to orient myself. Diving with no references can confuse the brain, so I looked at my watch and then turned around to look at people, and all was good. Once I heard the first ding from the guide, I sunk to 40 meters and started to see the hammers. I went deeper, down to 46 meters, with five hammerheads around me. They quickly disappeared as the other divers met me at the same depth. As we floated, we again entered a large school of silver-tip reef sharks.

We hit two minutes and had to start our ascent back to the surface. The total dive time was around 30 minutes. We returned to the harbor and then did our surface interval before heading back out for another thresher shark dive. The walls are beautiful in Fuvahmulah, but we did not see any thresher sharks on this dive. I did see one of my favorite fish, though, and that is the Napoleon wrasse. They are endangered mainly due to overfishing because they are large and beautiful fish. We exited the water and headed back, and I got some lunch before our next dive, the Tiger Zoo.

We put on our gear and head to the spot for another negative entry. As I hit the water, I went down immediately, and we were met by a curious tiger shark who came to see what our splashes were. I got into a different area than the last time, so others could get the shots I got from yesterday. On this dive, I wanted to focus on the movement behind more. I was drawn to the sharks appearing in the deep blue. That grey-striped pattern with the dark blue behind it was a beautiful contrast. We had about 12 sharks show up this time, including a small one that was around 2 meters in length, and Rose visited again, who is the largest one. She is around 4.5 meters in length, and when she passes you, the sheer size of her head and width is just mental to be around. Since we had another group getting ready, we peeled off from the site and went into the blue. This truly is the most exciting part because as you turn your head to look in all directions, you spot a silhouette, and a tiger shark would come to look at you and then move on. The creepy part was not knowing where it would come from, and tigers approached us from every direction.  We drifted far enough from the wall that they stopped coming to us, then we boarded the boat to head back to shore.

A group of us wanted to do the famous mud baths after the dive, so we got dropped off at our hotels and headed to the spot to park our bikes before walking to the mud bath. There is a boardwalk to a walkway that leads to a gazebo, and I launched my drone from there to see what was around; the aerial footage is beautiful in this area. The textures of the marsh grass and black mud are a beautiful sight to see.

The fun part comes now, so we jump the fence and walk out to the mud baths. I set my shoes and backpack aside because I didn’t want to lose my flip-flops or get my pack covered in mud and headed to the edge of Mud Lake. Walking to the edge, I fell in about waist deep, and it's such a cool place. I then got into the mud lake, and gosh, it was a weird sensation. There was a liquid mud layer on the top, but on the bottom, near your waist to feet, I bumped into these giant large cobs of root/ mud material. I imagine it's what a spoon feels like in a bowl of cereal puffs. We hung around relaxing in the mud for about an hour before getting out. 

The mud gets everywhere, (and I mean everywhere) so we walked to a beach area and got in the water to clean it off. We got back to the bikes, and the key I was given, which was able to start the bike a couple of times, was the wrong key, so I walked back to the hotel with my friend, which turned out alright because we walked along the shore and watched the sun go down. I got dinner for the night and relaxed since we would repeat the same day.

24/3/23

I woke up at 6:30, ate, and got to the dive center around 7:30. The first dive was the hammerhead dive since that’s what is around now, and not many people were going out to see them aside from us, which was special. We get out to the site and do our deep dive. I got down to 35 meters, but my vertigo was worse today, so I stayed up a little and could still see a couple of hammerheads and lots of silver tips again. After that 4-minute bottom time, we returned to the surface to get on the boat and head back to shore for the interval.

We then did the tiger shark dive and had around 15 of them, including the large and the little ones, which was a treat to see. Being around those animals is just an amazing experience. After we pulled away from the wall, I was above the shark biologist Fillipo. He had a large female approach that got very close before going the other way and then she came up to him again super close and turned right back around, going into the deep blue. Diving with these animals demonstrates how they are just curious rather than blood-hunting monsters as the typical media likes to portray them.  Altercations between humans and sharks happen, but the amount is so small for how it is portrayed.

We then went on the south plateau and dove a wall for the last dive of my trip because I was flying the next day. This was a pleasant dive because I saw schools of jackfish, barracuda, and tuna with a couple of reef sharks around. After the dive, I went to Tiger Harbor and flew my drone to get a video of the circling sharks in one clip. I managed to see 15 at once.  It is so cool seeing those large black silhouettes just under the surface, and you can see the divers hunched together on the reef edge.

That evening, I went to the beach to watch the sunset and flew my drone around. Then I got images of the beach, island, and hotel I was staying at, had dinner with some friends and headed to bed.

25/3/23

Today, I enjoyed the beach and exploring with the scooter as I'm unable to drive on the island I live on because it's so small. I said my goodbyes to friends and took pictures of other spots around the island. My flight was at 16:00, and it took about two hours to return to Male.

Fuvahmulah is an incredible island and place. The people are amazing, and the island has a beautiful dive culture. The island has some of the best oceanic megafauna dives you can ever do. It’s a seasonal island regarding what wildlife shows up from the thresher, whale, oceanic mantas, and hammerhead sharks. The tigers are there year-round. I was very fortunate to see the species I was able to see. If you are into ocean wildlife, it’s a must-visit for 4-5 days if you come to the Maldives.