In the first of four videos from their recent trip to the Maldives, Richard and Hayley from Black Manta Photography share their magical Pelagic Encounters and more…

When you book yourself onto a dive holiday with an itinerary named ‘Pelagic Encounters’, you start dreaming of the numerous sightings of sharks and manta you will see – that’s what we did anyway. However, you always have that little niggle in the back of your mind of “will they turn up”? “Will we get lucky”? After all you’d hate to spend a load of cash on a trip to be disappointed!

We had those very questions ringing around in our heads before we departed for our most recent trip to the Maldives to spend on a week on the blue Voyager – part of the blue o two fleet. With the best will and the best planning in the world, there is, after all, just no way of determining what the wonderful marine life of the Indian Ocean will do!

Thankfully, as you can see from the video below, we had no need to be concerned at all, as we were spoilt absolutely rotten, day after day!

Despite the continued reminder to ‘keep our expectations low’ that our Cruise Director resonated at the end of every dive brief, we were blown away with the sightings of large pelagics almost every time we jumped in the water. Even on day one – generally the day where you expect the least amount of action to take place, no? I mean, surely it would make sense to save all the best stuff till the end of the week so you go out on a high?

Absolutely not! Day one was the day that everyone on that dive safari boat was left utterly speechless with a 60 minute show worthy of a place on a Blue Planet documentary! Over 30 sharks circling in the current, with our group of divers as a very grateful audience. To say we were stunned is one thing, but for the dive guides to profess that they had never seen anything like it before, made it all the more special.

The main ingredients of the week were manta rays, sharks of all different varieties, and with the cherry on the top being two glorious whale sharks in the waters of Ari Atoll. The fish amongst the reefs were in plentiful supply and we were even treated to a few leaf fish, and ghost-pipe fish.

Without a doubt, we experienced some of the best diving we have ever done. The Magical Maldives delivered a first class ‘Pelagic Encounter’, and one that is going to be very hard to beat!

Keep an eye out for our next video from our second week in the Maldives, where we enter the enchanting world of the Maldives from a ‘Macro’ perspective!

For more from Richard and Hayley visit www.blackmantaphotography.com.