Giant porites coral bommie
Let ’ s talk diving
Fishing licences on the sand flats are limited to a prescribed number of ‘ rods ’ per day , so Blue Safari has been encouraging diver tourism . Alphonse has a well-appointed dive centre with a hard working crew of young professionals , led by Eleanor ’ s husband Juho Karhu , from Finland , who is in the enviable position of being the only permanent scuba operator in the Outer Islands .
“ The remote aspect of our atolls and lack of commercial fishing pressure means that we see reefs in almost their pristine conditions when it comes to fish life ,” Juho told me . “ We encounter many different schools of fish ; healthy populations of larger predatory fish such as large grouper specie sand sharks . And the steep drop-offs around the atolls are very impressive .”
Barracuda school at Eagle ’ s Nest
Alphonse has several towering pinnacles of Acropora coral that are among the biggest I ’ ve ever seen , potentially a thousand years in the making . The deeper walls , meanwhile , are home to forests of gorgonian fan corals , rivalling the coral walls of the Philippines or the offshore islands of the Red Sea .
Ultimately , it ’ s all about the fish . You see big schools on every dive , all thriving in the atoll ’ s supercharged food chain . I saw billowing shoals of bigeye trevally ; pickhandle barracuda and blushing schools of pinkish humphead snapper . Sightings of hawksbill and green turtles are commonplace ; you can see 20 on a single dive .
Blue-lined snapper in a gorgonian forest
PHOTO : MILES ESCOW
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