Whale Shark and Manta Season, Baa Atoll

I will avail in Sept 2012 and want to photograph Whale Sharks and Mantas in Baa Atoll. I was there last year in March and we saw mantas and one whaleshark in Ari Atoll in March.

Anyone have some information on the likelihood of sightings then as I would ideally like to see many. I understand there was a thread about not sighting many mantas in Hanifaru this last season. Anyone care to share other stories? Is diving allowed around the whalesharks in Baa Atoll? In Ari we just snorkelled with one.

Whats the latest update wth diver restrictions in Hanifaru?

Also ideas about LOBs would be appreciated. Mid Budget - Nitrox.

Thanks

Depends on your idea of "many"

At certain times every couple of years at Hanifaru the conditions are just right to attract literally hundreds of mantas and up to a dozen of whale sharks at the same time.

If we could predict this occurrence, we'd be able to make a million dollars in 3 days but predicting these things is beyond us at the present. It's like asking us what the weather would be like on March 14 at 2:45pm.

Your best bet for regular year long Whale shark sightings is still around Maamigili in the South Ari Atoll however there are plenty of lesser known sites with whale shark sightings.

The weather this year has been very strange- note that SE Asia has had intense rainfall but the Maldives has been very dry for what is normally the wet monsoon season. What the conditions will be like in the early months of next year is anyone's bet.

Sorry for the non-reply to your questions but being able to specify nature in this way is pretty much impossible.

Yes I do understand the nature of nature's unpredictability. Im merely asking about previous trends to assist my timing of booking. Im hoping a well organised LOB for 2 weeks will be able to find something interesting during September with the likelihood of increased plankton blooms. Im looking for feeding patterns at the surface, something new as I have already encountered cleaning stations.

Does the La Nina weather pattern affect this? I have heard it may affect the pelagics world wide.

shmuggy:

Does the La Nina weather pattern affect this? I have heard it may affect the pelagics world wide.

Click to expand...

That's an interesting proposition.
Depends on what effect La Nina has on the Maldives weather systems and then the correlation of weather patterns to the behaviour of the pelagics (if any).
Without detailed studies everything looks "unpredictable".

I would ask the question - how does la nina or any associated weather patterns affect food sources like plankton blooms. Other factors - tidal and planetary alignments ie phase of moon ? Im sure theres a strong correlation between this and pelagic congregations. So does this mean there was less plankton in 2011? Than in 2010?

Or is there a different confounding factor?

Btw anyone care to report general topside weather in Sept? How was it last month? How are the sea sky (rain/sun) conditions?

From the North Ari weather-wise we have at last had some rain and unsettled weather for the last 4 or 5 days. We haven't had to cancel dives but we also are blessed with plenty of Thilas inside which offer a bit of protection.

Water temps are still high at around 29 degrees in the top 30m

I would suggest that the sunny weather would increase the amount of phytoplankton and thus the zooplankton would also increase. Localised populations of plankton feeders would have a field day. Here in the Ari we are still seeing mantas on a fairly regular basis- sometimes in the lagoons on a dive or from the boat on the way to or from a divesite. We haven't been going to normal "manta divesites" as they are generally far away for the average diving dhoni but we've had a few trips via private speedboat with good results.

From my personal observations, the grey reef sharks have all but disappeared- either to deeper water or out to sea I don't know. But it is rare now for us to see more than 3 at a time. Maybe the feeding is better out in the deeper passes; maybe the water is a bit too warm?

In the south Ari, the greys were a wet monsoon (May-Oct) shark and then in the drier and warmer monsoon, they would leave for a bit and come back at the end of dry season.

Remember that the Ari atoll is an atoll with a huge number of thilas which means that true channel diving is quite rare. I have no idea how the channel dives are looking in say the Nth Male atoll.

Thanks supergajin btw how have the whale shark sightings been in the west and sth ari sections recently?

Yesterday I was down in fron to Dhigura island where we saw 2 sharks (one bigger at about 5.5m and the other smaller at about 4m. The water was very dark and they were at depth (8-10m) so not easy to see from the surface. We saw nothing at the surface itself. Today another group went down but without luck.

Mantas are plentiful at the moment