Maldives cabinet makes a splash

The government of the Maldives has held a cabinet meeting about five metres (16ft) underwater to highlight the threat of global warming.

President Mohamed Nasheed and his cabinet signed a document calling for global cuts in carbon emissions.

Ministers spent half an hour on the sea bed and communicated with white boards and hand signals.

Officials from the low-lying island nation say the dive is "a bit of fun", intended to send a serious message.

The Maldives stand an average of 2.1 metres (7ft) above sea level, and the government says they face being wiped out if oceans rise.

Read more via BBC

ADI & Orca Dive Club partnered up

Aqua Dreams Imaging, Maldives & Orca Dive Club, India have partnered up to do adventurous dives in the Maldives and also in the Lakshadweep Islands of India. Minnicoy Island (known to Maldivians as Maliku) share a very similar traditions and culture as that of the Maldives. Anees from Orca Dive Club has dived in the Maldives a number of times. The first time Shaff & Anees did work together was during the underwater shoot of the Bollywood movie 'Kites' in January 2009 starring Hrithik Roshan. This collaboration will see a lot of divers from India coming to dive in the Maldives and hopefully see Maldivian divers going and diving in the Lakshadweep Islands.

For more information please contact:

info@orcadiveclub.in

shafraz.naeem@gmail.com

siku@promolab-maldives.com

Divers make a new World Record in Indonesia

Indonesia plunged into the Guinness Book of Records Sunday after a mass dive as part of the Sail Bunaken 2009 event held in North Sulawesi. The event was organized by the Indonesian Navy in conjunction with the country's Independence Day celebrations and involved 2,861 people diving simultaneously.
Another world record was broken at the same event by the divers, including military personnel and civilians, who held an underwater Independence Day flag ceremony in Manado on Monday.

The ceremony was the forth world record Indonesia has broken so far, Navy deputy chief Rear Adm. Moekhlas Sidik told Antara news agency.

The breaking of two world records was a special gift for Indonesia celebrating its 64th Independence Day.

Photo courtesy of Ronny Rengkung

The new world records are expected to increase visits by both domestic and foreign tourists to Indonesia, particularly to Manado.

The 2,861 divers broke the world record as they remained underwater for 31 minutes, the longest time so far achieved internationally.

The previous world record was broken in the Maldives by 979 divers for only 10 minutes.

The dive in Malalayang waters started at around 10 a.m. Sunday and 31 minutes later the divers, including 51 foreigners, ended the dive gradually.

Two governors, S. Sarundajang from North Sulawesi and Fadel Muhamad from Gorontalo were among the participants.

Nine-year-old Kesia Lamudju was the youngest diver to participate in the event.

"We have broken the world record today, we are very proud of our strong maritime country," Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Freddy Numberi said in Manado.

The record breaking success was decided by a representative from the Guinness Book of World Records, Sinogagliesi Lucia, who witnessed the event.

Lucia said the record breaking dive was valid and amazing.

The event was extraordinary because so many people joined the mass dive and broke a world record, Lucia added.

North Sulawesi legislative council member, Benny Rhamdani, said the world record success deserved a special commendation from the central government.

"There should be special recognition of the organizers and the region holding the international event as it has boosted Indonesia's image overseas," he told Antara.

The event was tightly monitored by a helicopter that hovered over the dive site, and four Indonesian warships, as tens of thousands witnessed the event.

News courtesy of: http://www.thejakartapost.com

Video featured in DivePhotoGuide.com

One of our videos from Baa Atoll Hanifaru have been featured in an article in the website www.divephotoguide.com. The link to the article is below:

http://www.divephotoguide.com/articles/hanifaru_bay_maldives_manta_madness

5 Day Dive Underwater Photo & Video Shoot

Our friend MTV Vj Nikhil arrived in the Maldives once again after almost 1 and half years to do a 5 day underwater photo and video shoot in association with Faunu Travels. The dives were amazing and the fun began as soon as he set foot on Male'.

Day 1

‘Not Kikki Reef’: The first dive of the trip for Nikhil to get used to being underwater again. The currents were not so bad. Nice drift. Managed to take a few good photos.

Day 2

‘MV Maldive Victory’: This was a dive that I don’t think Nikhil will forget nor will Siku. The currents were ripping when we jumped in. The visibility was not so good as well, but we managed to take some amazing photos on the wreck. The video of the shoot has been uploaded in youtube. The fun part was the safety stop at 5m!

Day 3

‘Banana Reef’: What can I say about Banana Reef? It’s always good to dive this site whether its good or bad visibility. Amazing fish life!

‘Nassimo Thila’: Visibility was not that good but the dive turned out really well. The reef was full of colourful soft corals and lots of fish. We ended up with a 31 minute deco-stop in the end! But it was well worth it!

Nazma, Beybe, Raxan, Miru and Sheri joined the team on this day of diving. Sheri, Raxan and Miru did their Discovery dive during the break between the dives. And also some breathtaking aerial acrobat demonstration was given by Riya, Beybe and Raxan.

Day 4: The MJ Tribute Dives

‘Bandos Rocks’: I don’t think we have seen so many glassfish and baitfish on the reef anywhere else. The whole reef was covered by them. Once they surround you, you can’t see more than a few inches front of you. It was amazing to see the tunas, jacks and dogtooths slamming into the wall of fish in a feeding frenzy. A few of the divers who joined us on this day paid their tribute to MJ by wearing one white glove. At about 38m (Yep! We love going deep!) Siku found a really old Nikonos IV 1983 version camera.

‘Maagiri’: Just an easy dive to relax and take some macro photos. The visibility was very poor during this dive. At the end of the dive we had a small Hawksbill Turtle come up and say hi to us. Too bad we had the macro lenses on the cameras during this dive.

‘Bandos House Reef’: The third and final dive of the day was done at Bandos House Reef to take more macro photos. The reef was full of life. The corals are very healthy and fish everywhere. Black-Tip Reef Sharks was seen hunting the school of Blue-Striped Snappers.

The MJ tribute dives were joined by Niyad, Hassu, Hassu Bro, Hasy, Hiyaa, Poppy & Muthu.

Day 5

‘Kuda Giri Wreck’: One of the best wreck dives we have done. The nice thing about this dive is that after you finish diving the wreck you can swim over to the reef and continue on. The reef has a lot of swim-throughs and caverns. We got some great photos at the wreck and also while finishing the dive on the reef.

‘Embudhu Cathedral’: On our way to this site we spotted a big pod of Dolphins and stopped the boat to try and snorkel with them. We had the best visibility we ever had during the last 4 days of diving on this dive. The current was mild and it was an easy and relaxing drift. Stopping every few minutes when Shaff stopped to take photos.

The 5 days of diving for the underwater shoot would not have been possible if not for the help from our friend Riya from Faunu Travels (who is also a member of the ADI Team) and also Murad from Bandos Island Resort.

Thailand Travel & Dive Expo 2009

Attending the TDEX 2009 in Thailand was a big step for ADI this year. Met with a lot of dive operators as well as dive magazine publishers. Ben from Blue Label Diving joined me and helped me out a lot. I hope that this year is going to turn out to be a good year for ADI and also for Blue Label Diving.

Shark Fisheries Banned in the Maldives

The Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture has imposed a ban on shark fisheries from all the atolls of the Maldives. The ban will be on all shark fisheries within a 12 nautical mile radius. Previously the ban was on imposed on 7 atolls. This is good move after tremendous efforts by various parties and individuals. 

Juvenile Black-Tip Reef Shark fished in Baa Atoll                (Photo: Shaff)

The Ministry has set a target of one year to ban all shark fisheries including oceanic sharks and the export of all shark products. The permanent secretary of the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture said that "The fishery law clearly tells us that we can protect any marine species if we feel that it's threatened or endangered for any reason. We have taken very strong action against the protection of sharks simply because they were protected worldwide and are very important for tourism."

Juvenile Black-Tip Reef Sharks fished in Baa Atoll         (Photos: Shaff)

It will be a difficult task to enforce the ban, but the ministry says that the responsibility to enforce will have to be shared by the atoll offices, the police and the ministry.

An attempted finning on a live Whale Shark in Ari Atoll      (Photo: Mohamed Faizan Waheed)

According to the Secretary General of Maldives Association of Tourism Industry (MATI), the effect of the ban on the tourism industry would be 'tremendous' as 30 percent of the tourists visit the Maldives for it's underwater life and in addition to Manta Rays, Sharks would be their number one priority.

A Grey Reef Shark at Maaya Thila, Ari Atoll     (Photo: Shaff)