White Pearl Maldives Part Two: Whale Sharks, Soft Corals & High-Voltage Diving

Editorial Director Mark Evans continues his voyage on the MY White Pearl, and finally gets to see a whale shark on scuba after decades of missing out

You can read part one of this article here.

We began our adventure in North Ari Atoll, with a dive on Kurumba House Reef, and while this was basically a shakedown dive for everyone to get their weights sorted and see how the diving operated, it was by no means a dull dive, with plentiful anemones and attendant anemonefish, morays aplenty, and an array of colourful reef fish.

South Male Atoll: Diving Kandooma Thila

As soon as we were back aboard the White Pearl, we made haste to South Male Atoll, and the famed Kandooma Thila. This is often seen as one of the best, most-exciting dives in South Male Atoll. The thila is situated in a channel, so currents can get quite exhilarating. However, the currents were manageable the day we did it, so we were able to swim around and explore rather than be tethered in one place on a reef hook. While we did not see too many sharks apart from the odd glimpse, we were rewarded with encounters with huge shoals of sweetlips and yellow snapper. We also found green turtles and hawksbill turtles which were more than willing to pose for photographs. One hawksbill was jammed into a crevice on the reef, and we had to patiently wait for him to stop troughing on soft corals and lift his head up for the shot.

“There was a reasonable current running along the reef, so I had to shoot on the fly, but it just seemed to be endless carpets of soft corals of every colourway”

Vaavu Atoll: Nurse Sharks & Channel Action

We moved yet again after this, heading to Vaavu Atoll, and the Alimatha House Reef. Now you might see the words ‘house reef’ and be having dubious thoughts about the quality of the forthcoming dive, but have no fear, this particular house reef has an ace up its sleeve – or to be correct, several aces of the shark variety.

The jetty on the Alimatha House Reef has become a hotspot for nurse sharks. We dropped in well up current from the jetty, and enjoyed a very pleasant reef dive on this vibrantly coloured slope, but then the guides started making reef-hook gestures, and the jetty structure appeared above us in the shallows. We could already see several nurse sharks circling on the slope beneath the jetty, and we all hooked in as we reached their position. Nurse sharks are quite inquisitive sharks, and once we had settled either on the sandy bottom or hooked into the reef, they began swimming around us all, allowing for some seriously up close and friendly interactions. There was a solitary reef shark bombing around just on the limits of visibility, but this was all about the nurse sharks. A couple of the individuals were a good two metres plus, I was able to snap a shot of one of these when it lay on the bottom and allowed me to get within 30cm of its head. Another bonus was a tiny juvenile eagle ray that seemed to be having as much trouble in the current as we do!

Staying in Vaavu Atoll, we next dived the acclaimed channel dive site Miyaru Kandu. In fact, it was so good, we did it twice on the trot. As is the norm with channel dives, we dropped into the water up-current, and then drifted along the reef until we neared the channel entrance. At this point we had to descend to the lip of the drop-off and fin hard to get into a good position to use our reef hooks. Once secure, we could relax and watch the show. Here we had numerous grey reef sharks and whitetip reef sharks patrolling back and forth in front of us, along with the odd eagle ray soaring on the current. Once the sharks were used to our presence, they swept by within a metre or so, providing a thrilling sight as they eyeballed you on their way past. We even saw some of them entering a cleaning station – the sharks went almost vertical in the water and opened their mouths, and then cleaner fish feverishly picked away at morsels inside their mouth and gills. Unfortunately, I was too far away to get a decent photograph, so just enjoyed the spectacle unfolding in front of me.

Night-Time Encounter with a Whale Shark

One evening, the White Pearl team turned on powerful lights at the stern of the vessel, and we were told that if anything interesting showed up, they would come and wake us up. Sure enough, within a couple of hours, we got a knock on the door to let us know that a whale shark had put in an appearance, accompanied by a couple of dolphins. We all hastily rushed down to the rear deck and then spent the next two hours mesmerised by the sight of a six-metre whale shark actively feeding right in front of us on the swarms of plankton attracted to the lights. A few people got into the water to snorkel with the shark, which must have been amazing – though once they got out, we discovered that the little pink things you can see on the surface in front of the shark had a habit of clagging on to them! These critters – which we nicknamed ‘alien Pokemon crabs’ – are apparently late-stage crab larvae, known as ‘megalopa’.

South Ari Atoll: Wrecks, Reefs and My First Whale Shark

After the thrills of the channel dives with the sharks and rays, we moved to South Ari Atoll for a spot of rust-lust, with a dive on the Mahchafushi Wreck. This Japanese cargo ship was intentionally sunk as an artificial reef in 1998, and sits upright in 30m, with the upper superstructure coming to within 12m of the surface.

Given it has been down over 27 years, the entire wreck is encrusted with marine growth, with some decent-sized sea fans, and some little clumps of vibrant soft corals. You can easily venture into the holds, but our guides advised against penetration into the other areas, partially due to the fact they are quite tight, but also, with the amount of coral growth, you would inevitably cause damage trying to get in and out.

There were numerous morays on the wreck, and a sizeable pink stonefish, as well as anemones and their attendant anemonefish. Reef fish have moved in and there was a wide selection of the usual suspects in and around the superstructure.

We stayed in South Ari Atoll for the next few dives. These included Kudarah Thila, one of the area’s most-famous dives, which became a marine park in 1995. It features plenty of overhangs and ledges, and was a feast of reef fish of all shapes and sizes.

Next came what, for me, was the undoubted highlight of the week – a dive at Maamigili Beyru. Despite diving since my early teens and having travelled extensively diving for the last 28 years, I had never seen a whale shark while diving. In fact, I had only ever seen one briefly while snorkelling, in pretty lousy vis, off Mafia Island in Tanzania many years ago. It had become a running joke – while I had a fantastic hit ratio on other shark species, including tiger sharks, hammerhead sharks, oceanic whitetip sharks and so on, I was a bit of a Jonah when it came to whale sharks! So when our guide Shinty said he could almost guarantee me a whale shark, I was – to say the least – extremely sceptical given my past history!

We were briefed to be ready to get in, and then off our dhoni went, along with a veritable fleet of other vessels (this was one of the few times when we saw lots of other dive boats – a testament to how popular this area is) on the search for whale sharks.

We had not been going along for even half an hour when the boat crew exploded in excitement, and our guides all frantically told us to get ready to jump in. Was this the moment when I would finally break my whale shark duck? Like lemmings, we all jumped off the dhoni and hastily descended, finning hard in the vague direction of the horde of snorkellers we’d seen on the surface. I correctly presumed that the whale shark would be somewhere beneath this mass of heaving bodies, and so I was prepping the camera as I finned, knowing it was probably going to be a brief flypast.

There it was! On the very limits of visibility, the unmistakable shape of a whale shark coalesced out of the blue and I took one quick snap shot. Swimming hard to get into position, I managed to frame and shoot a single shot of the whale shark as it swam right across in front of me. I was speechless. It might not have been a monster whale shark, but it was still a good size, and it was right in front of me. I guess I have to admit they are no longer spotty figments of people’s imaginations…

Our other dives in South Ari Atoll included the spectacular Mirihi Wall, which delivered yet more reef sharks, and Moofushi Rock, which was so chock-full of marine life that we did it twice! There was also the manta cleaning station at Rangali Madivaru. Here we were treated to a couple of manta rays sweeping in to be cleaned, but visibility wasn’t the greatest, so it tempered the encounter somewhat. However, there was plenty of other things to occupy yourself with outside of the mantas, including two mating octopus, and several brightly coloured red anemones. And then, as we made off along the reef towards the end of the dive, I had to pull my best ‘Matrix’ lean backwards to avoid a manta ray that came zooming down the reef and literally went over me less than 50cm from my face. I managed to snatch a photo as he bore down on me, and then spun round to snap one as he went past.

North Ari Atoll: Soft Corals and Manta Nights

We moved on to North Ari Atoll early evening, and that night the crew laid on the extra-special night dive with manta rays at Fesdhoo. Here, the dive team arranged a veritable runway of bright dive lights, and this in turn attracted the mantas, which swooped in to feed on the plankton that was drawn to the lights. There is something almost primeval about being sat in darkness and then having large pelagic creatures come swooping into the light sometimes just a metre or less away.

In the morning, Shinty told me he had a special treat for me – one of the best soft coral sites in the Maldives, at Malhos Thila. Now the Maldives are renowned for their pelagic action, strong currents, channel dives, and vast shoals of fish, but they are not somewhere you think of when talking soft corals. Places like Southeast Asia, the Red Sea, or Fiji, are world-class locations for colourful soft corals. However, after diving this site, I was astounded at the sheer quantity and quality of the soft corals on display.

There was a reasonable current running along the reef, so I had to shoot on the fly, but it just seemed to be endless carpets of soft corals of every colourway. Some of the overhangs were adorned in predominantly white corals, but other sections had ever colour imaginable. I could have happily dived this site two or three times, it was that spectacular. In fact, I have shown some of the coral shots to well-travelled friends and they could not believe that they were taken in the Maldives, as they just didn’t think you could find soft corals like that there.

We rounded out our day in North Ari Atoll with dives at Bathala Thila and Rasdhoo Madivaru, which delivered more grey reef shark and whitetip reef shark action, as well as a very inquisitive and friendly batfish that followed our group for about 15-20 minutes.

Shark Tank: The Maldives’ Wildest Dive

We returned to North Male Atoll for our final two dives at Shark Tank, which is located at Hulhumale right in the shadow of the runway and the high-rises of the capital of Male. This is an infamous site where some companies actively feed the sharks in the area, but the team on the MY White Pearl do not conduct feeding dives and just dive here in the knowledge that there will be several species in attendance, including guitar sharks, lemon sharks, spinner sharks, bull sharks and tiger sharks. Great hammerheads are also known to show up from time to time, and a huge number of stingray species can be seen too.

This is certainly not a dive for the inexperienced! Not only is it relatively deep, with the need to drop down to 25m-30m to be in the thick of the action – though you will start seeing spinner sharks and lemon sharks within seconds of entering the water – but it is also not the best visibility in the area. So depth and vis combined with multiple shark species buzzing you is not a combination for novice divers!

On our first dive, there were only a handful of other boats around, mostly dhonis from liveaboards, and we were pretty much the first into the water. Vis was massively down from what we’d been treated to the previous week, but that didn’t matter from the moment the first spinner and lemon sharks started cruising past us. I could see huge rays on the sandy seabed below, and as we dropped deeper and headed towards a large coral block, I saw my first bull shark. The chunky head, tiny eyes and sheer presence were instantly

recognisable. There were two large bull sharks, with the bigger of the two covered in remoras on its pectoral fins. It was not best-pleased by this, and could be seen ‘shrugging’, for want of a better word, trying to dislodge them, to no avail. Right on the limits of visibility, I could just make out the stripey body of a tiger shark, but it was not coming in for a closer look.

The second dive had a completely different vibe. Where on the first one, our group was virtually alone with the sharks and rays, and everything was nice and relaxed, on the second one there were plenty more day-boats disgorging divers into the water. Underwater, it was a joke. While our group tried to dive as we had on dive one, we bore witness to divers from the other groups finning frantically straight at the bull sharks and the tiger, which had now decided to come in, GoPros extended in front of them. Twice the tiger swam past me with divers swimming right next to her and stuffing their action cameras on poles right in her face. The worst moment was when she became surrounded, and as she was seeking a clear path away, one of the divers reached out and stroked their hand down her side! I was appalled. It was absolutely crazy behaviour, and how no one got bitten is beyond me. Accidents have happened at this site in the past, thankfully with only minor injuries, but with this sort of idiotic behaviour it is only a matter of time before something more serious, or potentially fatal, happens, and the sharks will be the major losers when that happens.

For those who love sharks, especially apex predators like tigers and bulls, this is an absolutely mind-blowing dive. Done respectively, it is a fantastic experience. But unless something is done to curb the lunacy I witnessed first-hand, it will soon become a thing of the past.

Life Aboard the White Pearl

The whole feel and vibe of being a VIP guest on a super yacht were reinforced during the week when one afternoon, it became watersports day! While we were off diving, the crew busied themselves prepping kayaks and SUPs, and a large inflatable slide off the side of the vessel. There are even two jet skis for those who want to make use of them (for an additional charge). The drinks flowed as the guests all enjoyed a relaxed afternoon chilling in the jacuzzi, taking turns down the slide, or paddling around – or attempting to! – the pristine waters surrounding the White Pearl.

Final Thoughts

All too soon, our week on the MY White Pearl came to an end. I simply cannot fault the boat or the crew, to a person they were all amazing. The cabins and social areas were kept spotlessly clean, the food was always top-notch, and the dive team were knowledgeable and friendly. Plus, they know how to ‘cut a rug’, often getting up dancing with the guests during the almost-nightly disco sessions near the bar, complete with neon lights and glitterball!

The topside highlight of the week was when we had a beach barbecue on a tiny sandbar, and the crew had created a beautiful sand sculpture of a whale shark. It was a truly magical experience being on this speck of land in the ocean, especially as the sun set and the night sky illuminated with stars. Simply incredible.

Frequently Asked Questions