It cannot be denied that I am a
seasoned snorkeler. As a child growing up in the Mediterranean I would run down
to the sea every day after school to see how the fish and my beloved octopus
were getting on. As a teenager in the Middle East, I would spend months on end
in the water. Now, after all this training, I’ve reached the pinnacle of my
snorkelling career and gone professional by working as the Resident Marine
Biologist and EarthCheck coordinator at Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa. This is why,
I believe it means something when I judge the Hadahaa house reef to have
delivered the best snorkelling I have ever experienced.
The thing that first strikes you about
our reef is the sheer volume of coral, a thick tangle of different species, all
tussling for space growing one on top of the other, completely obscuring the
seabed. Thousands of brightly coloured
reef fish flash in front of your eyes like jewels, going about their daily
lives as eager as children in a playground. The coral itself has a pallet of
deep browns and greens, which to the untrained eye may seem plain, but for me
is heartening. The darker the colour of the coral, the more algae there is
living in symbiosis with the polyp. The Algae photosynthesizes, providing
nourishment for the coral in exchange for protection. The polyp itself is
usually transparent or only slightly tinted, while its skeleton is made of
calcium carbonate making it bright white. This means that a coral with light
pastel shades is lacking in algae, and the coral on our reef is teaming with
the stuff (as much as 30,000 cells per cubic millimetre).
On a day like today, there is not a
cloud in the sky and the sea is so flat it looks like tin foil. The sunlight
glides effortlessly through the water and dances on the reef making even the
drabbest rock sparkle and glitter. The water is heavy with fish, merrily
nibbling away or surveying their domain. A gentle crackling can be heard,
reminding you of the amount of activity that goes on unseen below you. I love to
watch the electric blue Cleaner Wrasse attending to the larger fish, flittering
over their scales and under gills to rid them of dead skin and unwanted
parasites. The client hovers in suspended animation with a look of pure ecstasy
enjoying their underwater spa treatment, until the Cleaner Wrasse digs too
deep, and without warning, is ushered away with a stern flick of the tail.
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| A Parrot Fish enjoying his exfoliating spa treatment |
