Diving Group 4 – Dhafeena, Zaain and Shafra.                       

Although it wasn´t planned to be that way, March 8^th seemed to be the perfect date for the first group of female students to celebrate their day and go on a diving trip. The past 24 hours had been so rainy, that there was the possibility of having to cancel this trip for the third time in a row, but fortunately that Friday morning looked like a sunny and nice day for diving.

After all three Grade 11 students arrived to Hulhumale´s terminal, we took the speed boat and then a taxi to Into Scuba Diving Centre where Haisham and his group of divers were already waiting for us. This time two foreigners were also taking the Discover Scuba Diving course and joined us in watching the introductory video and later on in the dive.

At first, it looked like there weren´t going to be any strong currents, but once we arrived to MaaGiri the water was swelling and we could see how it was raining again in Male´ and Thilafushi. Before jumping into the water, one divemaster was assigned to every student, which meant that there were five divers (including Haisham and me) keeping an eye on the three students and making sure that there wouldn´t be any problems.

Once we were underwater, the current made it difficult to conduct the shallow water exercises; however all the students practiced removing their regulators underwater, clearing their masks from leaking water and equalizing. After around fifteen minutes we started heading towards the deeper area.

The total dive time was of 46 minutes and the maximum depth of 11.6 meters, we managed to see a stone fish, many yellow margin trigger fish, two clark´s anemone fish and a school of blue stripe snappers, all of which were enough to make the students replace some of their old fears with excitement about their upcoming dives.

Filling the forms and getting ready to watch the video

On our way to MaaGiri

Shafra

Shafra and Zaain

Zaain and the school of blue stripe snappers

Blue stripe snappers

Blue stripe snappers

The ballerina picture

Zaain

Dhafeena

Shafra

Shafra

The end of the trip

Save the Beach event at Villingili – Snorkeling trip                             

After a long pause in the activities of the diving club, caused mainly because of a blockage in the Eustachian tube of my left ear (a consequence of some forced equalizing during my last dive), some students at Billabong High decided to participate in one of the snorkeling groups of a cleaning event organized by “Save the Beach” which happened in Villingili on Saturday, March 2^nd.

At 8:20 in the morning, Aysha (former student), Hanani (9A), Ahnaf (9A), Muaviz (8B), Alhan (8B), Janan (8B), Ahzam (8B) and I took a lorry from Billabong High to Villingili´s terminal. Half an hour later we met with some more Billabong students, then with the two other members of our snorkeling group Daha (8B) and Daniel (10A), and finally at around 9:15 we met with the Into Scuba team who provided us with t-shirts, lifejackets and some extra fins.

To reach the reef, each student had to jump from an estimated height of 3 meters, put their masks and fins on, and then swim against an uncomfortable current. Each student had different tasks such as carrying lifejackets, looking for garbage, carrying the garbage, helping those few who weren´t very experienced snorkelers or taking pictures. Once at the reef, the current was perfect for all of us to drift along it and enjoy the underwater view which included a small manta ray.

All in all, we did two long trips along the reef, finished at around 1:30 pm and saw all kinds of garbage including plastic bottles, plastic bags, cans, cigarette boxes, diapers, t-shirts and office chairs. Unfortunately, we also noticed that the reef isn´t well preserved and a big part of it has died as a consequence of negative human intervention. We all hope that these kind of awareness events will not only become more frequent but will also succeed in promoting an environmental culture in this country in order to preserve and protect the great underwater biodiversity of the Maldives.

Arriving at the beach

Getting close to the reef

Janan showing a plastic bag and a metal can

After the first trip and with the Into Scuba flag and team behind us

Going back to the starting point of our trips

Headless me

A huge school of fish right next to the reef (Picture taken by Hanani Aslam)

A banana peel floating around (Picture taken by Hanani Aslam)

Powder-blue surgeon fish (Picture taken by Hanani Aslam)

Hanani and Daha

Collecting an empty pack of Milo

Daniel and I diving in the water

Daniel carrying a bad with garbage

After the second trip and ready to go back to Male´