Marine Biology & Sustainability Newsletter BLUESix Senses Laamu & 1 GREEN LAAMU Marine Biology & Sustainability Newsletter September 2020 During September diving was back in full swing at Deep Blue Divers dive center and we had some incredible night dives. Captured here is a squid by Yameen, our Assistant Project Manager for the Manta Trust in Laamu. Marine Biology & Sustainability Newsletter Marine Biology & Sustainability Newsletter Six Senses Laamu 2 Six Senses Laamu 3 WELCOME (BACK) ALI! Until 2018, Ali was an excursion guide on his home island, Maafushi, but he always had a passion for conservation and wanted to learn more. He joined the MUI team as a research intern for six months. During this time his focus was studying Six Senses Laamu’s seagrass meadows, as well as conducting FINAL BEACH reef surveys and helping to start a turtle grazing study. At the end of his internship, after working PROFILE temporarily for the Manta Trust, he was offered the position of Research Assistant for Blue Marine The MUI team has finished its twelfth and final Foundation. Throughout his time with BLUE, Ali month of beach profile data collection. The helped with the research and capacity building beaches and islands of the Maldives are alive, activities related to the future MPA in Laamu, consistently shifting due to the biannually including playing a large part in the Laamaseelu changing prevailing winds moving the Masveriya (sustainable reef fisher) program. sediment and sand around the islands. This movement causes beaches to grow and shrink After a year with BLUE, Ali’s contract came to an depending on the monsoon season and in some end in September and Six Senses Laamu wasn’t case, extreme erosion can cause loss of habitat ready to say goodbye to him yet. He has now for turtle nesting and property damage. been taken on by the resort as MUI’s Research and Community Officer. With ample experience across The project monitored this erosion and accretion all teams within MUI, as well as a passion for at Six Senses Laamu over 12 months, with the aim Laamu’s community, we are very excited to see what to predict where the most vulnerable locations Ali will achieve in this new role within the team. are and allow us to predict and appropriately defend the coastline. Our next steps is to analyze this data and create a report that will help advise the resort, and other resorts around the country, on how to monitor and foresee potential issues WORLD CLEANUP with sediment dynamics around islands. DAY It has always been a tradition for Six Senses Laamu’s hosts to join thousands of other volunteers around the world in celebrating World Cleanup In September the MUI team interacted with 30% of guests day on September 18th. In the past, we ran at the resort. cleanup events at the resort with guests, as well as with local community members and students on local islands. Unfortunately, due to the current An average of 6.7 megafauna were encountered across 75 pandemic, we have not been able to travel to other islands for the safety of the local community. snorkel and dive excursions with a total of 166 sharks, 110 However, our hosts were still determined take part turtles and 133 rays sighted. in World Cleanup Day 2020 and it was celebrated at the resort by 25 hosts from all departments. Over 30 kg of waste was collected by these volunteers from all around the island. This waste arrives at the resort after seawater floods landfills and trash is discarded onto beaches, eventually ending up in currents which make their way to Laamu. Marine Biology & Sustainability Newsletter Marine Biology & Sustainability Newsletter Six Senses Laamu 4 Six Senses Laamu 5 THE FIRST EVER WORLD MANTA DAY World celebration days are always a highlight at dive site, shared a manta ray presentation Six Senses Laamu and this year, we finally got and involved guests in measuring out to celebrate World Manta Day! September 17th manta rays on land. marked the first ever World Manta Day and what a treat it was for our guests and hosts to celebrate World Manta Day was created to celebrate Laamu’s gentle giants together! manta rays and to raise awareness of the threats that these beautiful, mysterious, We started off the celebrations with life-size sand ocean giants face. Manta rays are protected mantas and a manta ray naming event at our GM under legislation in the Maldives but they cocktail party on the 16th. Guests voted on their are still threatened worldwide by fishing favorite name for one of the newest mantas in the practices, climate change and human Maldives and decided on Handhu, the Dhivehi impacts. Awareness of manta rays is key word for moon. We hope to spot this manta at toward increasing conservation measures. one of the aggregation sites in Laamu. To keep To learn more about World Manta Day, the celebrations going all week, the team hosted visit www.worldmantaday.com. a special manta ray dive at the local manta point checking to see if this will be a new manta ray SURFACE FEEDING in the Laamu database! Stay tuned for next month’s Blue and Green newsletter to see if SURPRISE there is a new manta recorded in the atoll. The team is flying the drone again in hopes A few days after World Manta Day, diving guests of locating surface feeding behavior during were surprised by surface feeding mantas on their their aerial surveys. In past years, October dive trip to Fushi Kandu. Four mantas were spotted and November have been peak months for but their feeding behaviors and the plankton rich manta sightings in Laamu and we can’t wait waters made it challenging to capture clear ID photos. to see what the remainder of this year will The team was able to record one ID shot and they are bring! Marine Biology & Sustainability Newsletter Marine Biology & Sustainability Newsletter Six Senses Laamu 6 Six Senses Laamu 7 RAISING THE AMBITION FOR OCEAN PROTECTION In September, BLUE’s Maldives Project Manager, Shaha Hashim, joined two panel WELCOME discussions alongside leading world experts in marine conservation to discuss the (BACK) NAFHA! need to increase ocean protection in the Maldives. At the UN General Assembly side event organized by Freuds and GoalsHouse UK to discuss ’30 by 30 Ocean Protection’, she talked about the marine conservation initiatives being undertaken in Laamu Atoll, and the need to increase the ambition Last month we welcomed BLUE’s new Resort for marine protection in the Maldives. Shaha was joined by Peter Thompson who Research and Fisheries Officer, Nafha Asim, to is the UN Secretary- General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean, Professor Carlos Six Senses Laamu. Nafha will be responsible M Duarte from the Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Professor for managing the ‘Laamaseelu Masveriya’ Callum Roberts from the University of Exeter and Dr. Arlo Brady who is the CEO (Responsible Reef Fisher) program and of Freuds. supporting research activities relevant to the development of protected areas on Laamu At the Panel Discussion organized by Ex-President Nasheed’s Maldives Coral Atoll. Reef Institute on the ‘Future of Maldives Coral Reefs’ she reiterated the need to discontinue destructive development activities and improve the ecosystem resilience as a climate adaptation strategy. Shaha was joined by Professor Callum Roberts of University of Exeter, Dr. David Obura of CORDIO, Dr. Kathryn Mengerink from the Waitt Institute and President Nasheed on the panel. Nafha is a graduate of the Bachelor of Environment Management at the Maldives National University. Naff interned with BLUE during her studies and helped them develop the Responsible Reef Fisher Program and conduct research to improve management of the grouper fishery She brings with her a wealth of experience from her previous role as a Sustainability Co-Ordinator for Banyan Tree where she was responsible for oversight of all sustainability programs. Marine Biology & Sustainability Newsletter Marine Biology & Sustainability Newsletter Six Senses Laamu 8 Six Senses Laamu 9 SEA TURTLE IN THE OLIVE RIDLEY SPOTLIGHT: ARYA PROJECT BACK Arya is our most frequently sighted turtles at Laama Faru Haa, one of ON ISLAND our inner reef sites in Laamu. She is a firm favourite amongst guests due to her incessant curiosity. She frequently flouts our “recommended distance from wildlife” guidelines, swimming straight towards This month, Olive Ridley Project’s sea snorkellers to take a closer look. She will happily float next to visitors turtle biologist, Jo, returned to Six Senses to her reef, taking a few breaths at the surface before diving to find her Laamu. After a two-week quarantine, ORP favourite food - sponges. She is also one of our rare “travelling turtles” were thrilled to get back in the water with and has been spotted at several nearby reefs. our local sea turtles. Amari was our most frequently sighted turtle this month and was photographed on seven separate occasions on our house reef. She delighted guests with her consistent ability to find the most “uncomfortable-looking” resting spots on the reef. With guests back at the resort, our Laamu ID database continued to grow - this month four green turtles were added to our database! with a presidential decree banning TURTLE MEAT the catching and killing of sea turtles in 1995. Unfortunately, despite CONSUMPTION legal protection, anecdotal reports of sea turtle poaching suggest that turtle meat consumption remains an IN MALDIVES occurring practice in Maldives. In the past, consumption of sea turtles was This month, the MUI team found turtle common in nations with access to nesting remains which sadly bore trademark beaches or significant foraging populations.