As promised, below are some more amazing photos from our snorkelling trip at the Tinga Giri coral gardens in the Lhaviyani atoll in the Maldives. The photos I include below are very typical of the marine life we encountered at other snorkelling sites around the island resort of Kuredu. Thanks once again to Ludwig Hoffman, our Kuredu Prodive snorkelling guide for having an underwater camera on hand. First up is the moray eel. We saw numerous moray eels throughout our weeks visit. This shot from Tinga Giri enabled us to get within a foot away after duck diving down to his lair. The moray is 70% blind and relies on water movement in front of him to detect prey so we were perfectly safe. The largest moray we saw on the trip was actually at the Kuredu house reef. While snorkelling over a large coral block and admiring some scuba divers who were at a depth of around 4-5 metres, a large black moray swam out of his coral hideout into open water right up to the divers. An incredible sight.

Moray Eel, Tinga Giri, Lhaviyani Atoll, Maldives 

Another common underwater sight in the Maldives is the titan triggerfish. We were warned by our snorkelling guides that if we came across this fish feeding off coral it was perfectly safe. However, if we happened to encounter him in shallow water and seemingly hovering face down towards the sand then we would need to be wary. In this sand stance, the titan triggerfish is likely to be protecting eggs. If he feels threatened then he will go after you. Not necessarily a great thing, given this guy can be seen hacking into coral with quite sharp teeth. In the event we did come to grief with a territorial Titan then we were instructed to fin away from it, flippers towards the charging fish. After a while, the pull of instinct to protect his eggs would see him go back to protect them and leave you alone. Well, there maybe some toing and froing for a while, until you are out of his personal space. Thankfully, we were not chased down by this Maldivian biter, but we did hear from two people on the trip who were attacked. There were several other varieties of trigger fish that we saw too. Most notably were the schools of red-toothed triggerfish, which on occasion you could float through in an exquisite scene of flickering blue and black half moon tails.

Titan Triggerfish, Tinga Giri, Lhaviyani Atoll, Maldives 

Yet another cool fish now. I remember getting a Ron and Valerie Taylor underwater photography book as a kid, and I do remember seeing a porcupinefish in its pages. So I was excited to see many on this trip, and in the photo below I dived within a few feet of him. I thought they were dangerous these fish, having spines which are a fierce defensive mechanism. In some species of porcupine fish the spines are extremely poisonous. But in actual fact, if you keep your distance they are perfectly safe to observe. This photo was taken at another reef site, closer to the Komandoo resort.

Porcupinefish, Komandoo, Lhaviyani Atoll, Maldives 

Of course one of the more amazing marine creatures in the waters of the Maldives is the stingray. For some reason I thought stingrays were relatively small things (maybe Steve Irwin would suggest otherwise), but on numerous occasions, while snorkelling both at Tinga Giri and other coral sites, I was astounded by both their size and grace. Margaret and I came across a couple of types of rays. First up was the feather-tailed stingray. This is the ray in the Tinga Giri shot below. On one occasion when snorkelling out to a reef in the lagoon of Kuredu resort I came across three different feather tailed rays all on the one outing, two of which I only discovered at the last instance when seemingly detecting my presence the ray emerged from the sand bed and began to swim in the most serene of undulations. Of course the other magnificent ray we encountered was the eagle ray. At one snorkelling site in Kuredu, Magaret and I came within a metre of a huge eagle ray, it’s tail at least two metres in length and a span of about 1.5 metres.

Feather Tailed Stingray, Tinga Giri, Lhaviyani Atoll, Maldives

Our experience of seeing the above ray was made even more unique when a hawksbill turtle arrived on the scene. It was like being in an aquarium seeing such beautiful marine life in co-existence. I loved the photo below. The ray floated over the turtle in perfect harmony. None of them seemed worried by the other. The hawks-bill turtle, of which we saw quite a few in the waters off Kuredu feeds off the coral, hence their beak like mouth. These guys can stay submerged for up to 45 minutes before heading for air, unlike their green turtle neighbours, (of which we also saw many) can hold their breath for a whopping 5.5 hours.

Close Encounter, Stringray and Hawksbill Turtle, Tinga Giri, Lhaviyani Atoll, Maldives

I close with one final photo of our underwater jaunt. Yet another photo of the Maldivian clownfish. I liked the composition of this shot. “King of the Mountain” Ludwig called it, and it is a fitting title. After seeing such great photos taken by Ludwig I was half tempted to rent a camera for further snorkelling, but decided I would leave my photography to the above water and truly immerse myself in the underwater world of the Maldives.

King of the Anemone, Clownfish, Tinga Giri, Lhaviyani Atoll, Maldives

Having been lucky enough to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef in the Whitsundays some years ago, I would have to say that for accessibility and sheer variety of marine life, the Maldives has left me with more stunning memories. That said, we may have been especially fortunate to see see what we did in the Maldives. Ludwig passed comment a number of times that our Tinga Giri trip was truly exceptional. Should also be pointed out that the coral blocks in the Maldives aren’t as spectacular as the Great Barrier Reef, the reefs of the Maldives are still recovering from an El Nino warming event in 1998.