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An Accidental Underwater Safari


pomkiwi

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Manta Rays

 

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Manta rays are large. The resident species in the Maldives is Manta alfredi which reaches up to 5.5m across. As I have mentioned earlier in the report mantas tend to move between two locations in the Maldives depending on the monsoon. They do this to take advantage of the differences in currents carrying large amounts of zooplankton on which the feed by filtering large volumes of water through their mouths.

 

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They come to specific points on the reef where they congregate to allow small fish to clean them of parasites and dead skin. These cleaning stations can attract large numbers of rays who ‘queue’ for their turn. The rays are curious and will come to investigate swimmers or divers.

 

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The water was quite cloudy and it was an exciting moment to see a shadow emerge and become a rapidly approaching ray. We were in about 3m of water and the rays would swim around and under us. They came within 5cm of us on may occasions but never touched us.

 

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The markings on the white underbelly are unique to each individual ray and used by biologists to identify and track the rays.

 

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I’m not given to hyperbole but this was an amazing and unforgettable experience.

 

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"an amazing and unforgettable experience"

 

Oh yes, I would say so too :)

Great pictures! I hope to get to experience that someday...

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Turtles

 

Turtles are relatively uncommon. Only 6 individuals have been identified on this island reef. They do not breed on the island. All are hawksbill turtles and forage on the reef for small crustaceans. It is believed the healthy shark population may keep the turtle population in check in the Maldives by feeding on the hatchlings.

 

On this trip I saw behaviour that I have never seen before. Over a shallow part of the reef I found a turtle motionless in the water whilst a number of fish were apparently cleaning the carapace. This continued for about 5 minutes until the turtle swam off. I was only 50 cm or so away and the turtle appeared completely unfazed. In its way as memorable as the time with manta rays. On that note and with a few images I will finish this brief report.

 

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~ @@pomkiwi

 

Fortunate the “small and exclusive readership” who read this trip report!

Your underwater images are captivating...which is an understatement!

The water clarity facilitates seeing into the distance.

Considering that I'm enjoying your trip report while seated at a computer desk in a landlocked city, that's remarkable!

Rays, turtles, tangs, angelfish, coral — what a lovely variety of marine life.

As your “safari beneath the surface” is out-of-the-ordinary, it stands out.

Thank you very much for taking time to prepare and upload these images with helpful commentary.

Tom K.

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@@Tom Kellie Thank-you for your encouraging words as ever.

This trip was unusual in that the 'safari' aspect emerged whilst there rather than being planned. Our few days lazing on the sand in the sun turned into a thoroughly enjoyable exercise - initially just enjoying the scene below me, then spotting some patterns of behaviour and spending idle time and thought working out how to get the best sightings and capture them on record. Other than the manta rays and the fixed points on the reef however nothing can be planned and I very quickly realised how much I think and work in two dimensions whilst marine life has the freedom of three!

I must confess that whilst normally having an approach of minimal post-processing the images posted here have mainly been subject to some fairly serious intervention through Lightroom - the 'dehaze' tool in particular has been remarkable in the clarity it has brought to images i intially assumed were unusable.

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~ @@pomkiwi

 

Thank you so much for explaining the context. It helps a reader like yours truly to better appreciate the situation.

As I've never had cause to consider underwater photography, I was unaware that there was a ‘dehaze’ tool.

Those of us who've never had such an experience benefit from what you've been posting, both images and commentary.

It bears repeating that one of Safaritalk's finest attributes is its educational function for those with limited experience.

Tom K.

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@@pomkiwi

I love turtles, and I did not know about such behavior, so interesting. Your pictures are wonderful, thanks for posting them and thanks for adding Maldives on my list :)

 

Thanks for mentioning the dehaze feature. I knew of if, but I never thought about using it for underwater pictures. I don't have the CC version of Lightroom, but I just found a set of free presets (Prolost) that is supposed to do the same. Will try them with my recent underwater pictures.

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@pomwiki, I have enjoyed this trip report so much with the wonderful pictures of the manta rays, the sting rays, the hawksbill turtles and the sharks. I have enjoyed every photo.

 

I was so taken with your photos of the blue and yellow surgeonfish I had to look him up - he is a Powderblue surgeonfish. Another one I had to look up is your little gold clownfish. He is actually is a Pink Anemonefish which can range in color from pink to orange. There is nothing like the tropical pacific ocean for beautiful fish.

 

I keep trying to claim some of my green turtles are actually hawksbill, but now that I see your pictures, I know none of them are.

 

The manta ray photographs are my absolute favorites through. It is amazing how a creature can keep track of where it's wing tips are and not touch a nearby snorkeler.

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to post all this for us to enjoy.

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@pomwiki - have really enjoyed this report with the great photos and interesting commentary.

 

I'm particularly taken with the handsome markings of the hawksbill turtles.

 

Would be interested to learn if you got much feedback about concerns of the effects of climate change on the Maldives?

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@@Tom Kellie Thank-you for your encouragement. The 'dehaze' tool is very good for the underwater photos and I will be interested to see if it adds anything to more general photography now that I have found it.

 

I was tempted to add that it could be useful for the air quality where you live but that might be too large a task!

 

Thank-you for using some of your hard won intenet access time to comment on mine and other TRs.

Edited by pomkiwi
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@@Terry Thank-you for your lovely comments. I haven't tried to identify the smaller fish as that could end up being a long list. The surgeon fish were good to watch not least of all because they were extremely aggressive and would see off fish 3 or 4 times their size if territory was threatend. Being picky this was the Indian Ocean (I agree the Pacific can be amazing too) :)

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@@Caracal Thank-you. I enjoyed the time with the turtle (I saw the same individual on three days). I think they are beautiful and have an abstract image of the markings on the carapace of a Caribbean turtle as a screensaver.

there was no mention at all of global warming on this trip (I think it is a little awkward as most of the economy depends on the likes of me who have flown long distances to get there). My previous vist was in 2010 and it was more discussed then - there had been a huge amount of coral bleaching (now well recovered) and there was still a lot of discussion of the Boxing day tsunami at the end of 2004 which had badly affected the islands). I guess memories are short - on that visit we were carefully instructed on tsunami drill and the highest buildings to which we had to go - none of that this time.

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The other thing that increased the tsunami anxiety in 2010 was that we were there when the first Christchurch earthquake occurred and there were a lot of nervous people for the next 12 hours.

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@@pomkiwi

Thankn you for this fantastic report. The photos are excellent - I particularly like the sharks, sting rays and the turtles. But absolute favourite - the manta rays - what wonderful creatures and so well photographed. What an experience to swim with them - and so close.

My only experiences of underwater photography were in film days - I remember how hard it was to even keep things in the frame - so you have done exceptionally well.

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@@TonyQ Thanks for your comments. I can assure you that there are many hundreds of images where they came from - some serious culling is going on. All of the larger fish and turtles were relatively easy to photograph as they tend to move slowly and predictably - this was one of the joys of being with the mantas as they are so graceful. The problem with those was mainly one of image degradation rapidly with distance. Smaller fish were much more difficult as they move unpredictably and remarkably quickly - on many occasions I got a shot lined up only to find a sudden movement left me with half a frame of the rear end of a departing fish (a bit like steenbok but worse)

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Thursday's Child

This is a wonderful TR with stunning images. It must have been an amazing experience - I'm not sure my nerve would have held when the sharks were so close!

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@@Thursday's Child Thank-you. The first time I saw a shark it certainly raised the pulse. After a while however I did get used to seeing them and realised they were not interested in something as large as me! It was a lovely week.

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