House Reef Snorkelling

This is a must-do activity when you're in Maldives. Put on your snorkelling gear and get ready to explore the aquatic life, the beauty of the Indian Ocean and the natural habitat of hundreds of tropical marine life that call the surrounding environment home. We got on to a speed boat with an instructor and set sail in the middle of the ocean to do some house reef exploration.
I didn't have too many expectations when I dived from the boat to the ocean donning my snorkel mask and fins but I can safely say that my life changed in the next one hour. The beautiful underwater was teeming with abundant marine life. One by one, I spotted a Blacktip Reef Shark, a huge Hawksbill Turtle, an Eagle Ray and two big Stingrays! I also saw some Starry Pufferfish, and a school of Humpback Red Snappers. There was also a beautiful blue-coloured Giant Clam that shut down the moment we came closer to it. My friendly diving instructor Pyng Lin, who's originally from Taiwan and is a diving instructor at Sub oceanic Maldives, said that I'm extremely lucky to have spotted a shark, a turtle and a Stingray all together in just a matter of one snorkelling session.
I cannot really explain the feeling of swimming beside a shark or a Stingray but I can proudly say that I've ticked off a big thing off my bucket list. The Hawksbill Turtle is a critically endangered species and there's fewer than 25,000 nesting females of this kind now in the tropics. The Blacktip Reef Shark swam past me minding its own business, they're timid and shy and usually don't pose a threat to humans. The two huge Stingrays sat on the sandy ocean bottom and I immediately thought of Australian zookeeper Steve Irwin who was sadly killed by one. However, the Stingrays are extremely misunderstood gentle creatures and they don't do anything to humans unless provoked or disturbed.
Pyng later added, "We have good sandy bottoms and corals, so you have a good chance of seeing Stingrays. The Hawksbill Turtle is almost getting endangered and they are in a good population here. You also have a seagrass area where you can see the Green Sea Turtles. There are many different structures in the reef like seagrass, sandy bottoms and coral reef, so you get to see a variety of marine life." House reef snorkelling for an hour costs you around $50 per person. Do not miss it!
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