Once we arrived we decided to swim immediately. The water is crystal clean and about as good as the Bahamas. It was a nice change from rivers containing sewage and floating garbage in India. The sand is completely white and very fine, although it does have a lot of shells of good quality. Shell finding is an easy hobby to take up in the Maldives. It is so easy to find them, they are literally waiting for you to pick them up.
One species of fish defends it's territory by nibbling you and swishing it's tail at you. Nibbling doesn't hurt, but it does tickle. Some fish, similar to small parrot fish that are really colorful, like to follow you around because they think you are a large fish that will kill prey and then they can get the scraps. The come right up to your mask and if you move quickly, you can brush them with your hand.
Also, occasionally, you will see a turtle. We've seen two so far and one of them came up to us, right to the surface. We think it did that because it wanted to be cleaned. It swam around and around us allowing us to stroke it's shell. It was approximately 2 feet long. The second turtle was cruising along at a depth of about 30 feet below us and so we couldn't follow it.
Several sharks are in the Maldives, and for some reason, they all seem to be quite small. One type of shark, the black tip, we usually see about one foot long, which is almost birth length. They are very fast and if you hit the water or make a slapping sound, they will immediately dart off at top speed. Many fish and sea creatures seem to be very smart and have an internal clock. At our resort, every evening we can show up for "fish feeding" and all the fish there including several rays, a nurse shark, some baby black tip reef sharks, and other fish of various sizes are waiting for their dinner, which is thrown out to them by the marine staff here.
This is one shell called a cowrie which is a quite rare shell.
Some very pretty ones include the cowrie which is rare in most places. The Maldivians used to use them as a type of currency. The amount depended on size and color. Also, the fish life is incredible. Parrot fish are very common and if they come in a school you can hear them biting off coral under water. One species of fish defends it's territory by nibbling you and swishing it's tail at you. Nibbling doesn't hurt, but it does tickle. Some fish, similar to small parrot fish that are really colorful, like to follow you around because they think you are a large fish that will kill prey and then they can get the scraps. The come right up to your mask and if you move quickly, you can brush them with your hand.
Also, occasionally, you will see a turtle. We've seen two so far and one of them came up to us, right to the surface. We think it did that because it wanted to be cleaned. It swam around and around us allowing us to stroke it's shell. It was approximately 2 feet long. The second turtle was cruising along at a depth of about 30 feet below us and so we couldn't follow it.
Several sharks are in the Maldives, and for some reason, they all seem to be quite small. One type of shark, the black tip, we usually see about one foot long, which is almost birth length. They are very fast and if you hit the water or make a slapping sound, they will immediately dart off at top speed. Many fish and sea creatures seem to be very smart and have an internal clock. At our resort, every evening we can show up for "fish feeding" and all the fish there including several rays, a nurse shark, some baby black tip reef sharks, and other fish of various sizes are waiting for their dinner, which is thrown out to them by the marine staff here.
The lovely shallow blue water.
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