Merry Christmas and

The year 2022 is slowly coming to an end and what a year it has been. We had some exhilarating times, great moments, good news and many laughs – that’s what it is all about.

• The COVID scare is finally over. and we can travel again without annoying restrictions.
• We are happy and excited for Nadine our ex-staff and family member who got engaged this year to get married next year. We are all planning to come to the wedding.
• Our long-time staff member Oleg from Belarus has been waiting for this news for quite some time. Since November this year he can officially call himself a grandfather. This makes him a very happy man… until he has to change the first nappy.
• In May our friend Anke Apelt, a passionate shark ambassador from the Shark Project in Switzerland came for a visit. She lent a helping hand and checked on the progress of the shark research their protegee Gibbs Kuguru from the University of Wageningen was achieving here.
• We certified many new divers at both our dive centres to become ocean warriors and advocates for the precious underwater world.
• We are always on the lookout to help the Olive Ridley Project and Manta Trust to identify new individuals. As the manta database already contains 5000 recorded individuals it was a big challenge to find a new one. We remained persistent and were able to find one new one. As a reward we were able to name it. And ORP just notified us that we found one new hawksbill turtle. We will definitely stay on the lookout.
• We took 850 guests to snorkel with the majestic mantas at Hanifaru Bay.
• In November students from Fuvahmulah island in the far South of the Maldives came on an educational trip to the Baa Atoll UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. We helped the Baa Atoll rangers to look after 25 excited students while they were snorkeling with the mantas in the bay.
• Alex our instructor / graphic designer came up with some new designs for our t-shirts and UV shirts which are now for sale at both our dive centres.
• Abdul our dive master successfully passed his Instructor Development Course – in short IDC, here at the local island of Dharavandhoo and is now a PADI dive instructor.
• We hosted an underwater wedding proposal – she said ‘yes’.
• With 4 years of age we took our youngest snorkeler to see 100 mantas and a whaleshark in Hanifaru Bay.
• With 80 years of age we took our oldest diver for some fun dives in Raa Atoll.
• We have 3 new drone pilots / drone owners in our team, can you guess who? Marc, Gianluca and Kev. Let’s wish them safe landings.
• Several repeater guests came for their successive visits to both our dive centres. It was a pleasure having you back.

These were just a few highlights of the year 2022. I could go on and on. To wrap it up, we loved 2022 and are counting down the last few days of the year. Hopefully we see you here again next year for some more good times! Both our teams here in the Maldives wish you a lovely time with your family and friends around the Christmas tree.

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