Trip Report Fuvahmulah 1-5 March 2025

[Volleyball]

@Volleyball

We were supplied with a metal pole when diving in Tiger Zoo. Had Nina Erich been holding such pole on her hand, Zesty would not have a chance to chomp on her hand in that Tiger Beach accident

So, guys, make sure you carry and hold that pole when you are diving in Tiger Zoo. Hold it vertically and point it to the Tiger Shark when it gets too close to you.

Make sure to wear dark color gloves, fins & hood (especially those blond-hair divers). My dive buddy had a blond hair and I forgot to tell her about wearing hood. Luckily no Tiger getting too close to her head and there were several guides behind us watching our backs.

With the Bahamas, many have gave their opinion on what happened with several stating based on the reluctant to "follow the rules" comment, believed she likely had something in or did something with her hand to trigger the attack, but all we can do is guess; we'll probably never know for sure. The scariest part about the story is that eye jabs, grabbing the gills, or even stabbing it had no effect

With the Maldives, interesting. We dove with Fuvahmulah Scuba Club this past August, no poles or hoods provided (I have blonde hair). I checked with the GF, we can't recall the tigers ever approaching the group head-on, they would check us out while circling; they didn't seem very interested in us divers. The largest tiger seemed to enjoy wacking divers in the face, including yours truly

Pro tip with shark dives, descend/kick slowly to get to the observation location last in hopes that you can get on the edge. You'll get "cleaner" footage from one side without the other divers

 

[boqurant]

I was with a LOB (Blue Force 3) and we didnt get poles, nets or camo gear I was even sporting white fins, which wasn't great... However we were all hunkered down behind the crest of a slope and our DMs / guides were patrolling above and behind us, so it felt a little bit safer than being exposed... I seriously dont need to do that again though

 

[Dan]

The largest tiger seemed to enjoy wacking divers in the face, including yours truly

Whacking its face on guides to get to the Tuna head you mean? I can see that would happen when the guide is too slow to hide the Tuna head under the rocks.

One of the Tiger Sharks was actually whack you?

In Tiger Beach one of the Tiger Sharks did try to nibble on my fin. I just pushed its nose down to the sand & pulled my fin away, as shown in 2:47-2:50 time periods in this video:

Pro tip with shark dives, descend/kick slowly to get to the observation location last in hopes that you can get on the edge. You'll get "cleaner" footage from one side without the other divers

Can’t play the .PNG video here, Can you upload it to YouTube (MP4) and post the link here?

 

[Dan]

You are almost always going to have a better experience doing multiple days with a local dive shop with a local guide whose forefathers have been in or near the water for generations, than a few dives at best. We are blessed to have very generous annual leave and went there for ten days after a liveaboard to celebrate our 25 th wedding anniversary. It was super cool to spend part of the day with big tiger sharks, a few hammers and a thresher ! I would really recommend staying on the island, we did a similar length trip to Addu the following year after another liveaboard, where the manta dives were incredible. But the rest of the diving in Addu was a lot better than Fuv.

I’m considering going to Maldives Far South that covers Addu & add 3 days of diving in Fuvahmulah.

 

[Volleyball]

Whacking its face on guides to get to the Tuna head you mean? I can see that would happen when the guide is too slow to hide the Tuna head under the rocks.

One of the Tiger Sharks was actually whack you?

In Tiger Beach one of the Tiger Sharks did try to nibble on my fin. I just pushed its nose down to the sand & pulled my fin away, as shown in 2:47-2:50 time periods in this video:





Can’t play the .PNG video here, Can you upload it to YouTube (MP4) and post the link here?

That's a cool video and memorable that it nibbled on a fin. The tigers hit several of us with their tail. There's even an audible thud when it hits me at 22 seconds so I'd recommend having your sound on for comedic effect

 

[Dan]

That's a cool video and memorable that it nibbled on a fin. The tigers hit several of us with their tail. There's even an audible thud when it hits me at 22 seconds so I'd recommend having your sound on for comedic effect

Ah, they put you guys too close to the pit.

 

[Dan]

Fuvahmulah Scuba Club now has trips that dive both Fuvahmulah and Addu on the same day, which we haven't done yet. We had to fly and stay the night in Addu since the Fuvahmulah flights were cancelled; there is a cheap public ferry that goes between the two. If you go to Addu, try and reach out to your guesthouse about visitng the southern most point

View attachment 895989

This is a good info. Thanks for sharing.

In my last cancelled trip to Far South, Kooddoo to Kooddoo

Thread 'Last 2 spots with 15% off available on Blue Voyager Maldives Far South 20 Feb - 2 Mar 2025'

Oct 3, 2024

Some of my dive buddies got together and chartered Blue Voyager liveaboard to go diving in Maldives Far South for 10 night / 11 day trip (from 20 February to 2 March). By chartering the boat we are able to get 15% ($571 off) group discount for everyone, from $3810 to $3239 / diver.

Currently, we have last 2 remaining spots in a cabin available for a couple or 2 dive buddies that would like to share a cabin.

For more information about the trip, you can browse:

Blue Voyager Liveaboard - Master Liveaboards

Here is Master Liveaboards’ description of the offering…

Even by...

• Dan
• blue voyager deep south far south hammerheads maldives manta rays master liveaboards silvertip sharks thresher sharks tiger shark
• Replies: 24
• Forum: Maldives

We were supposed to fly from Male to Kooddoo and fly back to Male after the liveaboard then fly to Fuvahmulah. If we do the Far South liveaboard from Addu to Addu, then we can just fly one way to Addu, go on the Addu-Addu liveaboard take the ferry from Addu to Fuvahmulah, do the 3-days of diving in Fuvahmulah and fly back to Male from Fuvahmulah.

 

[Volleyball]

Ah, they put you guys too close to the pit.

As you can imagine, you don't get to pick a distance

This is a good info. Thanks for sharing.

In my last cancelled trip to Far South, Kooddoo to Kooddoo

Thread 'Last 2 spots with 15% off available on Blue Voyager Maldives Far South 20 Feb - 2 Mar 2025'

Oct 3, 2024

Some of my dive buddies got together and chartered Blue Voyager liveaboard to go diving in Maldives Far South for 10 night / 11 day trip (from 20 February to 2 March). By chartering the boat we are able to get 15% ($571 off) group discount for everyone, from $3810 to $3239 / diver.

Currently, we have last 2 remaining spots in a cabin available for a couple or 2 dive buddies that would like to share a cabin.

For more information about the trip, you can browse:

Blue Voyager Liveaboard - Master Liveaboards

Here is Master Liveaboards’ description of the offering…

Even by...

• Dan
• blue voyager deep south far south hammerheads maldives manta rays master liveaboards silvertip sharks thresher sharks tiger shark
• Replies: 24
• Forum: Maldives

We were supposed to fly from Male to Kooddoo and fly back to Male after the liveaboard then fly to Fuvahmulah. If we do the Far South liveaboard from Addu to Addu, then we can just fly one way to Addu, go on the Addu-Addu liveaboard take the ferry from Addu to Fuvahmulah, do the 3-days of diving in Fuvahmulah and fly back to Male from Fuvahmulah.

Sounds like a good plan, there was (double check things haven't changed) a morning and afternoon ferry. You could dive in the morning in Addu and take the afternoon ferry over yet have a plan in case it's cancelled. If you haven't heard with Addu, the guides can call the mantas over like dogs

 

[runsongas]

@Dan when I went with Bahamas master to tiger beach, that was the same case. you were given a pole for if any sharks got too close, told to keep your head on a swivel so the sharks are always in front of you, and they enforced black wetsuits only covering the whole body along with boots/gloves/full hoods.

 

[Volleyball]

@Dan when I went with Bahamas master to tiger beach, that was the same case. you were given a pole for if any sharks got too close, told to keep your head on a swivel so the sharks are always in front of you, and they enforced black wetsuits only covering the whole body along with boots/gloves/full hoods.

Whenever I see Tiger Beach (Bahamas) videos, there are always poles, and everyone is in full black wetsuits and hoods. I did a hammerhead shark dive off, Bimini and they required full black wetsuits with hoods and poles

This is not the case with Tiger Zoo (Maldives); we didn't need to wear a hood or even a wetsuit. In my video above, I'm in a dark blue rash guard with a huge "Columbia" white lettering going down the left sleeve. However, some dive operators may increase their safety requirements

Since we can't read sharks' minds, all we can do is apply our most educated guesses, which is that the Maldives sharks aren't as curious with divers as the Bahamas Tigers because they're not being hand-fed

In Jupiter/Riviera Beach Fl, there are shark feeding dives where divers observe a trained feeder feeding the sharks. The species of sharks you see depends on the time of year, but the bull sharks, Silkys and lemons sharks reliably come out if in season. Occasionally, a tiger or two will come out. I've done this dive about a dozen times, the sharks are very interested in divers. I use the insta360 camera (which I know is frowned upon) and sharks often think it's food and try to attack it

Here's when a lemon attacks it without any warning, and I try to wrestle it out of its mouth