Jessica's Blog

Hello everyone!

I just got back from a diving trip to Maldives!

It’s the best diving trip I’ve ever had so far! We got to dive with Whale Sharks (a very rare opportunity – it’s usually snorkeling), Manta Rays, Grey Reef Sharks, White Tip reef Sharks, plenty of Moray eels, big schools of Jacks, Tuna and plenty of colourful tropical fish! Not forgetting the beautiful underwater corals. I’ve always been fascinated with Marine life and all animals life and diving gives me an avenue to experience what I usually only get to see on animal Planet/Discovery Channel.

There was this one particular dive where the divers waited quietly and patiently at this cleaning area (at this point I didn’t know), and when I settled down on the sea bed edge, and looked up, I saw a BIG Grey Reef Shark 2-3 arm lengths away from where I am opening its mouth! The 1st thought that came to my mind was “Wow! I get to see it feed!”, then when I saw how the body was tilted and the mouth was gaping open, I knew it wasn’t the usual feeding body language. Then I realised it was getting its teeth cleaned by these tiny lil’ fish swimming in and out of its mouth!then, another 5-6 sharks started to get used to us and circled around where we were to get themselves cleaned. I was like “Wooowww! This is Animal Planet in my FACE!” I was so happy and thrilled by this whole entire experience – it was like a dream come true!

Then came the dive with the Whale Shark! It is at least 10m long and swam so gently and slowly in the shallow waters feeding on plankton. I dove right beside it from the tail to the mouth and when I reached the mouth, it opened its jaws so big to suck in the plankton! I caught all of that close up of it’s palette on my camera! I could gush on and on about my this dive trip, but let’s let my pictures do the talking! I took most of the pictures and borrowed some from the other divers! 🙂

Enjoy!

XOXO

Jessica

Giant Pufferfish

Dog Toothed Tuna

Honeycomb Moray Eel (I love this pic!)

Blue Stripped Fusillia

Napoleon Wrasse

This is one of my favourite pictures I took!

Marble Ray – This is one of the largest Rays I’ve seen underwater (about 2m in diameter)

White Tip reef Shark hiding under rocks

Spotted Porcupine Fish

Manta Ray swimming straight at me!

It came so close that my camera couldn’t frame it entirely!

Whale shark!

Hawksbill Turtle – I followed this fella for some distance to get some nice shots!