Maldives Trip Day 6 - Night Dive with Sharks
Last dive of the day and with all honesty its right up there with the Whale Shark! This was a night dive, and night dives are special in their own right. You tend to see a completely different reef out there in the dark. Many more creatures come out that were hiding during the day, the place just comes alive! It's the night shift.
In this particular case we went to an area near a resort (just under the jetty at the resort) where the resort staff used to throw food into the water to attract sharks for the enjoyment of the guests. I'm not sure they still do that but the sharks come anyway.. in their hundreds.
They're nurse sharks so they're not going to come after you, they're bottom feeders. That being said.. they get reeeeal close.. like close enough to touch .. see the pic above.. that's wide angle he was sooooo close he smacked me in the back of the head with his fin.
They literally do not care that you are there.. its incredible. They swim past you, around you, over your head, one swam right at me and head butted me in the chest before turning and swimming around .. I could almost hear it say 'oh sorry buddy, didn't see you there.' You can see it in the video but its a bit hard to catch as the low light conditions do affect video quality slightly..
This shot above here.. that's my dad, and that's a shark about to smack him with his fin as he swims past.. they really don't mind us being there! At 3:18 in the video, you can see one swim between the legs of a diver.
So for the entirety of the dive we all went down in a big group just before sunset, as its a little easier to get situated in the right place before it gets completely dark..
There's very little light in the water to begin with so once its dark it is truly pitch black. The only true source of light is from your torch and I was using a 25year old torch that just kinda felt a little limp in my hand when I looked to my fellow divers who were all using brand new LED powered ultra bright torches. I had a bit of torch envy .. i do not deny it.
But it didn't matter really, we were all together in a big group so as you can see in the video, there was plenty of light to go around .. and every now and then you'd get surprised from behind by a shark you couldn't see anyway.. (not as sexy as it sounds).
We spent a good hour watching the sharks swim around and past us, through us and under us, there were even a few stingrays in the mix. It was an amazing experience. When our time had run out and we needed to make our way back to the surface we first had to swim away from the jetty. Even though its night time there's still plenty of boat traffic and and night you are even less visible at the surface than during the day. The torches do help though. Once we were correctly positioned we did our safety stopped and proceeded to the surface. I did think it odd though that i could feel more and more pressure on my ears as I was ascending.. So I checked my dive computer and realised I was actually descending again. If I hadn't looked I wouldnt have noticed until I hit the bottom.. Its really easy to get disorientated in the pitch black .. even under the water.. Its one of the many risks.. As you can tell though I did make it back safely :) Check out the video of the night time shark extravaganza below:
Check out the previous posts in this series:
1.Maldives Trip - Day 1: The Epic Journey Begins!
2.Maldives Trip - Day 1: The Boat
3.Maldives Trip Day 2 - Looking for Manta Rays
4.Maldives Trip - Day 2 - Shark Encounter
5.Maldives Trip Day 3 - Reef Exploration
6.Maldives Trip Day 3 - Things don't go to plan
7.Maldives Trip Day 4 - Sea Turtle Sighting!
8.Maldives Trip Day 4 - The Jellyfish Monster
9.Maldives Trip Day 5 - The Kudimah Wreck
10.Maldives Trip Day 5 - Searching for Whale Sharks
11.Maldives Trip Day 6 - Reefs and Manta Rays
12.Maldives Trip Day 6 - Return of the Sea Turtles
!steemitworldmap 3.594170 lat 73.507219 long Maldives Trip Day 6 - Night Dive with Sharks D3SCR
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Thank you for posting @fiftysixnorth.
Lovely....lively writing and photographs.
Thank you for the introduction to night diving and nurse sharks.
Cheers.
It is my pleasure sir! I'm so pleased you've enjoyed this series :)
Another amazing post, even though you know they weren’t going to come after you was there still a buzz of anxiety swimming with sharks?
And second thing i have to ask have you bought a new modern torch yet :)
Thanks mate :) I wouldn't say there was a buzz of anxiety, probably more a buzz of excitement. I've encountered far more deadly fish in the past :) and my experience helps, the knowledge of different species and their behaviour helps to prepare you for what to expect and how to behave to stay safe :)
I haven't bought a new torch yet, it might be some time before I dive again, but I have been window shopping! Dive torches don't come cheap. ~£70 - £100 for your standard dive torch these days.
Yes of course makes sense
Wow that’s not cheap I only dived a few times many years ago before I started traveling more but if I remember right my diving torch was a heck of a lot cheaper Mind you that was 30 odd years ago
Guess what, you're being featured again in our Daily Travel Digest Post! And it's more than well deserved. I also fully expect you to teach me how to dive if the opportunity ever arises, haha!
Amazing thank you! :) I'll do what I can :)
You're welcome! Thank you, I really hope I'll find the opportunity to do it, and your post have motivated me even more to try it out!
Excellent! I'm glad my posts have motivated you :)
I've been checking out your posts and it's making me want to go learn scuba diving.
Awesome! It's an activity I highly recommend trying out! But make sure you make you first dive in a nice location. I know a lot of people who tried it out in horrible murky waters and it spoiled it for them :)
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