[Ant P]

Now I have this flickr site sorted I thought I'd post some more piccies These were taken in January 2007 on Sea Queen in the Maldives. First time I had been to the maldives and I was blown away by the fish life. The hard corals were in pretty good shape where we went, and the soft corals were amazing. My only downside for the holiday was that I managed to flood and wreck my camera so I only got shots from half the trip. Itinenary was N&S male atolls and N&S Ari atolls

Manta at cleaning station @ 22m having a tummy scratch

Blue giant pufferfish - can anyone ID this one? Amazing soft corals in the background

Kashmir snappers in an overhang

Batfish shoal with juvenile

Three frogfish for the price of one

Shoal of crescent big eyes looking spooky

Cheers, Ant

 

[Ding Dang Doo]

Excellent pictures Ant,

shame you had a bit of problem with the camera!

I'm (hopefully) off the Maldives next year (Mrs. Doo and mine's 40th's!!mg: ), not liveaboard as Mrs Doo doesn't dive... but hoping to get a bit of manta action!

Thanks for posting

Pete

 

[Ant P]

Excellent pictures Ant,

shame you had a bit of problem with the camera!

I'm (hopefully) off the Maldives next year (Mrs. Doo and mine's 40th's!!mg: ), not liveaboard as Mrs Doo doesn't dive... but hoping to get a bit of manta action!

Thanks for posting

Pete

We had two seperate dives at Manta cleaning stations - one at around 5m and one at 22m - both of which were outstanding with 10-15 mantas around at any one time. There were also stacks of sharks around, but I didn't get any decent shots of them.

Cheers, Ant

 

[HelenP]

Great pics. I love the one of the Manta.

Helen

 

[Tartbag]

Love the photo's

Amanda

 

[copperband]

Fabulous Manta shot there. So graceful.

 

[Jim Shaw]

Can you remember the dive site name where the 5M cleaning station was?, 2 of my mates have just come back from Ellidahoo, and took there sons, 11 & 15, they wanted to go to a cleaning station but the 11 year old is limited to 12 Metres, and dive guides said they did'nt know of any cleaning stations, shallower than 22 metres.

There was also a cock up with the boys Nitrox course, the dive centre let them take the course and both boys passed it, but then the centre said that the 11 year old, could not get his certificate, because he should not have been allowed to take the course until he was 15, leaving his father to explain it to the boy.

then they had the nerve to bill the father for the boys course, which of course he did'nt pay.

We had two seperate dives at Manta cleaning stations - one at around 5m and one at 22m - both of which were outstanding with 10-15 mantas around at any one time. There were also stacks of sharks around, but I didn't get any decent shots of them.

Cheers, Ant

 

[Nick_lincoln]

Very nice photos. One day I will go there................

 

[Snash]

very jealous of the frogfish photo - 3 in 1 shot; I've yet to see one of the bu55ers :angry:

Simon

 

[colinpjenkins2]

Jim
Sea queen normal goes to three sites. Hithi Corner which I believe is the shallower one. Donkola Thila which has the most mantas I counterd 15 in sight at one time there must have been twice that number there but vis was a bit off, and Madivaru which is about 12/14 mt (this one is close to the Hilton resort. All sites are on Ari Attol. They occationally use Bodhuite for check dives and that to has manta action and that is less that 5 mt my read out on that dive shows max depth 3.4 mt and we had mantas the whole dive (64Mins).
Tip for anybody that wants to find out where things are at what time of year. Go to scubascuba.com (maldives scuba tour site) Then go to "trip reports from previous sailings" then pick the date and they list all the dives for each trip and what they see.

 

[Ant P]

Can you remember the dive site name where the 5M cleaning station was?,

I don't have my logbook to hand but I think it was Rasfari North reef, which is right by Hithi Corner that Colin mentions. Here is a shot of one of the guides - Lisa - with her favorite manta at that site.

Cheers, Ant

 

[Jim Shaw]

Thanks to Ant and Colin, I must check my log book, I think I dived this site a few years ago, but from memory did'nt have Manta's on the dive.