Following the popular saying, if a picture worth more than a thousand words, then a video taken with my scholarship camera (Sony a5000 given by Reef Photo & Video recording at 60 fps) is worth more than 60 thousands words! It seems easy, but after trying many times by my own, I still could not express clearly through video some of the spectacles I was experiencing underwater. This year is full of exhilarating encounters and more than having a desire to see and explore the ocean, I also feel the need to show others what am I doing! As Cousteau said: ”When one man, for whatever reason, has the opportunity to lead an extraordinary life, he has no right to keep it to himself”.

This is what brought me to the Maldives, specifically to the paradise of Kuredu Island, where the diving school Prodivers Maldives has videography experts who taught me over a month the basic principles of how to express my stories using video. It all started with learning how to clean and setup the camera housing and the lights and it ended up with lessons of how to film a big animal like a whale passing by!

My day-to-day there was filled up with amazing encounters! The reefs are full of strikingly colourful creatures and I could not believe the amount of species I saw! From tiny fish to big grey sharks and manta rays, Maldives is one of the world’s top diving destinations. It is a place full of surprises and I was lucky enough to see two uncommon phenomenons:

One day, just by chance and for the first time in my life, I saw sharks mating! This is something very special and difficult to see. I caught them on camera just a few meters away from the shore. There were three black tip reef sharks’ males following closely behind a female. I tried to get closer and closer, and after 45 minutes of observation I finally witnessed the moment when a male bit a female sharks left pectoral fin, held her tight, and started the copulation. They did that a few meters away from where I was and then she swam in between my legs (looking for protection, I guess), but it was too late, he was biting her harder and even though she was trashing a lot, she couldn’t release herself. For me it looked very violent and, for a second, I saw she was looking at me and I felt sad for her. However this is how it has been happening for millions of years and it is an evolutionary process to select the most determinate or persistent male and the strongest female. Actually the skin of the females is twice as thick as the males. It was honestly unbelievable to be so close to this violent situation! They were just on my feet and they didn’t care I was there.

You can watch the video I made about this. This was a bit challenging because I had to adapt the story to the public of the resort (people who go for their  honeymoon and families).

Another day I saw bait ball action! Not sardines being predated by sharks, but little pelagic fish (halfbeaks) trying to scape from two majestic sailfish!

We saw how these highly migratory predators use their spear to stun their prey. No one on the boat expected to see that and even the dive masters (who have few years diving those waters) where completely surprised! It was going to be a normal reef dive, but instead we saw a stable bait ball for more than 15 minutes! It was spectacular and really impressive.

I can’t wait to come back to this majestic place to dive with Prodivers Maldives!