A new form of underwater scuba sports - blackwater diving - offered by Deep Blue Divers opens up a new world of marine critter discovery for guests who stay at Six Senses Laamu. Mallika Naguran reports.
LAAMU, Maldives, 4 February 2020. Imagine looking at a marine creature that you’ve never encountered before. In the dark. And in the deep blue. Or black!
Heard of blackwater diving? It could just be a novel thing to do apart from the usual scuba diving ways. Scuba diving at Six Senses Laamu, for instance, could bring you encounters with megafauna including manta rays, sharks and turtles. These are common finds in the abundant dive sites of Laamu Atoll, which guests enjoy all to themselves. Now the resort’s dive center, Deep Blue Divers, is ready to present the atoll’s uniqueness in a different light. It is introducing blackwater diving in the Maldives, which is gaining popularity across the globe among many dive enthusiasts.
Mating pygmy squids is done in the dark but thanks to blackwater diving, this can be chanced upon by the sneaky scuba diver in the Maldives. Photo: William Tan
The blackwater diving experience is different from a typical day or night dive. It takes place in the open ocean, with divers drifting with the current in mid-water. Divers are guided by a string of LED lights attached to a vertical rope tethered to a surface-floating buoy. The lights also attract the deep dwelling, often alien-looking micro creatures, emerging vertically every night from the abyss of the ocean in search of food, in one of the greatest migrations happening on the planet.
"We are very lucky to be some of the first divers to witness this in the Maldives. There is no specific area or special time of the night to do this dive. Ocean creatures we would never normally encounter are drawn from the depths and darkness to feed on zooplankton that are attracted to the lights," explained Philippa Roe, one of the senior marine biologists working with the resort’s Maldives Underwater Initiative (MUI).
Amazing alien-like creatures in the deep, even ones that defy quick identification, can be illuminated and seen during blackwater diving in the Maldives. Photo: William Tan
Many of these critters, usually smaller than a human thumb, are ethereal reef fish in their juvenile phase, or invertebrates such as pygmy squids, fluorescent bristle worms and rainbow-pulsating comb jellies. “Expect the unexpected, because most, if not all, of the discoveries you make on a blackwater dive will be new to you. If you are lucky, they may be new to science as well,” exclaimed Marteyne van Well, general manager of Six Senses Laamu and an avid diver, who is also among the first people to experience the blackwater dive in Laamu Atoll.
Up-close and personal encounters with these wonders of the nocturnal pelagic sea life, against the striking black background, create perfect photo opportunities for underwater photographers and a fascinating experience for the adventurous divers to feed their sense of adventure.
“No two blackwater dives are ever the same, even when going several nights in a row. And each dive yields unexpected new treasures for everyone from novices to the most experienced divers,” commented Sascha Janson, resident photographer at Deep Blue Divers. There is no specific training required to do a blackwater dive but any diver with good buoyancy skills can participate in this experience.
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Conservation Efforts
Deep Blue Divers is a PADI Five Star dive center, which is also Green Star awarded for its commitment to ocean conservation.
Six Senses Laamu collaborates with three partner NGOs: The Manta Trust, Blue Marine Foundation and Olive Ridley Project for the purpose of research, guest education and community outreach goals. The marine team has identified and protected 420 resident sea turtles and 125 resident manta rays.
The team is also committed to reducing the environmental impact of their activities, while improving resource efficiency, self-sufficiency and zero waste. Efforts to reduce waste include printing responsibly, encouraging suppliers to reduce packaging when delivering supplies and ordering in bulk whenever possible, banning single-use plastics and recycling all organic waste for mulching and converting to organic garden soil. More than 3,700 students have pure drinking water due to 25 water purification systems donated.
Six Senses Laamu is the only resort in the Laamu Atoll of the Indian Ocean, surrounded by a beautiful coral house reef. While most of the villas and facilities are built overwater, there are land-based beach villas and dining as well.
Photos courtesy of William Tan and Six Senses Laamu.