The MWSRP and The American School of Doha Complete Successful Field Study in South Ari!

We are very pleased to say that November’s week long trip to the Maldives was a resounding triumph, with a great time had by all who went! The idea was to allow the students from the ASD to experience and learn about the whale shark and its coral reef habitat, and with a bit of luck, swim with a whale shark (or two!).

There representing the MWSRP were Ben, Rachel and Jay, who, it has to be said, required minimal persuasion to leave freezing England and spend a week in the Maldives! After meeting at Male airport, everybody had a chance to relax and get to know each other on the speedboat down to South Ari. Everyone hit it off right away so we had no worries about our week ahead. The students were staying at Holiday island, right at the bottom of South Ari Atoll and perfectly located at the heart of the reef.  

Over the week our days followed a similar pattern: we would be out on the water in the morning spotting for whale sharks, and in the afternoon the MWSRP team would give a presentation. On the shark front, we were very lucky; 13 sightings, 12 of which turned into in-water encounters. All of the ASD students were fantastic in the water, totally sticking to the guidelines even when it was a crowded swim with other snorkellers. As the week progressed, the students really seemed to take more and more of an interest in the plight of the Whale shark, often asking incisive questions and armed with new information they had soaked up from the presentations. By the end of the week it was not uncommon to hear them talking about claspers or caudal fins; zooxanthelle in particular was a popular choice!

In terms of sharks, we saw a real mix of old(er) and young, scarred and unmarked, even male and female: it was as if we were taking a perfect slice of the demographic to present for educational purposes! To name a few, we saw Woody- an old favourite, Qasim with his stunning spot pattern, Ginger, Adam and even Ayesha- one of only 10 females on our database, with her distinctive damaged caudal fin. We roughly saw one whale shark per hour on the water, a brilliant ratio of success as anybody who has spent time out there will testify. The ASD guys perhaps didn’t realise just how lucky they had been until they met a honeymooning couple who had been out for nearly two weeks and hadn’t seen a single one! Its fair to say we all felt fairly fortunate after that...

The trip ended on a real high note, with the students preparing individual thanks to the whale shark team, in the form of a poem, a heartfelt message and of all things, a rap! We were just really happy to have made so many new friends and that all of the students and teachers had enjoyed the trip.

We would like to thank Stephane and ITS, Chi, Peter and Cathy, Holiday Island, Mr Fayaz and the people of Dhigura, and of course the fantastic students of the American School of Doha.

 To see some more photos of the trip please go to our new facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Maldives-Whale-Shark-Research-Programme/159006320806911

The MWSRP Team