A Dive at a Current Swept Reef in the Maldives.

The Sun rises over the edge of Kaafu Atoll, and you only grab a quick snack – there are more important things than breakfast today. Just a few clouds in the sky, glassy turquoise water in the lagoon – that perfect calm is in the air, only interrupted by the diving centre hosts who are buzzing around, preparing the dive gear.

Instructors give a briefing; a teasing of what is about to come, and it’s time to hop on a Dhoni (boat). On the way to the dive site you catch some sun while chatting and laughing with other divers. Someone points at the flying fish
jumping out in front of the boat and gliding for over 100 meters … A little while later you hear a high-pitch tsssssst; the air tanks open and your heart rate picks

up with anticipation; It is time get in-gear. Air, buoyancy, releases – all check, boat edge,you jump and finally touch water. You enter the amazing blue, and as you descend, you leave the world of worries at the surface, and enter the silent world. No more talking or arguing here, just the blue, few hand signals, and the incredible wildlife that surrounds you. 

You approach a reef that’s glittering with fish; all feeding on the plankton that is brought here by the current.  Instructors help you to hook onto the rock, and you just need to hold a cord and watch the show in front of you, while the cool water (28^◦C) is rushing over your face. The abundance of small fish feeding in the current is astounding, and not only that; divers aside, it also attracts bigger, predatory fish and there is always some action brewing in the current.

Suddenly, out of the blue, a dogtooth tuna slices the school of fish in half, and the glitter of the panicking fish creates a magic light show. In fact, there are so many small fish that whenever the school changes direction you hear a sound similar to what you hear in wildlife documentaries.

Fast swimming giant trevallies join the hunt, chasing the fish all the way down to the reef. At the bottom of the reef the white-tip reef sharks, groupers and moray eels keep their watch for any fish that make the wrong move. With so many predators around, for a split second you can’t see a single small fish, just thousands of eyes peeking out of the coral...As the predators move away from the reef, the small fish mirror them and move back up to feed in the current once again. The whole show is simply hypnotizing…

Instructors signal that it is time to make a move. Hooks out of the rock, and you go for a ride with the current. No need to do anything – relax and enjoy the ride as you glide above the vibrant city of soft coral and busy fish, maybe even pass a turtle or an eagle ray on your drift… 

When the dive is over and you finally break the surface there is a moment of silence in the air. The feeling is a bit like waking up from an amazing dream, and you have to take some time to separate the reality from what has just
happened. Someone woke up faster than you; you hear somebody say “amazing!!!”... 

Sea Sparkles?!.

As a matter of a fact, Sea does sparkle indeed ! Recently, at night, our guests have been noticing glowing dots where the waves break on the beach. On some nights hundreds of these small planktonic creatures, each no bigger than a grain of sand, illuminate in electric blue as they are physically disturbed by the breaking wave. The organism causing this glow is Noctiluca dinoflagelate (a planktonic creature) commonly known as Sea Sparkle. This glow, is called bioluminescence, and noctiluca glows only when it is disturbed.

So why glow at all?.. It is thought that Sea Sparkle flashes to confuse or scare away its predators. However the purpose of the flash may be even smarter: this flash may help it to attract bigger predators to eat Noctiluca’s predators, just like a burglar alarm that alerts the police to come to someone’s house to catch a robber.

Gili Joins the Clean Up The World Weekend

The estimated 35 million volunteers, who take part in Clean Up the World weekend, are taking responsibility for the environment –and the effects are felt not only in the community in which they take place, but right across the planet. Gili Lankanfushi hosts and guests took part in this movement as well !

We have kindly invited our guests to join this global movement together with us. On Saturday an island cleanup with guest and host participants was carried out by over 30 participants, and nearly 20 kg of waste was collected from the beaches of our island. We  also drew some stats on  the composition of this waste, and submitted the data to "Ocean Conservancy" NGO. On Sunday we carried out some Reef Cleaning, to ensure that we take action both above and below the water. Luckily we found only very few pieces of trash on our house reef.  

We are also happy to announce that we have successfully signed a contract with Live and Learn Environmental Education NGO, which will carry out a year-long environmental education programme for our neighboring island community at Himmafushi. We hope that this will reduce the plastic consumption of the islanders, as well as encourage waste sorting and recycling within the community.

Hatch, Hatch ! Hatchlings

The One Palm Island today has over 200 black naped-terns nesting on the ground. Nests are literally everywhere on the island, and one can observe all the stages of the chick development. On the island there are eggs, motionless baby hatchlings, clumsy chicks, and finally juvenile birds that are already able to fly.The parent terns have timed this perfectly - it is the monsoon season, and the waters around the One Palm island are teaming with bait-fish. With food in such abundance the chicks will grow fast!

Everyone has a keen interest to see what's happening on the island, but we want to disturb the seabirds as little as possible. So our marine biologist went into the island with a telescopic lens for half an hour to shoot a video, so that everyone can see the miracle of life up close. Covered up with a towel (to reduce disturbance) he was still constantly being attacked by the birds.

Nevertheless the video project was a success, and you are invited to watch it: