| Cruising
the Maldives |
| Beautiful,
Wonderous, and Endangered |
| Rob, Annie,
and I met up with Martin and the crew of Nanou in the port of
Galle, Sri Lanka, where we were heading for the Maldives archipelago.
Over the last six months we had immersed ourselves in South Asian history,
folklore and culture and now we hoped to follow in Thor Heyerdahl footsteps,
filming a documentary film as we attempted to solve the Maldives mystery.
Rob and I had
met Martin some months earlier, and when I told him of our plans to film
in the Maldives and Sri Lanka, he invited us to join him on his 60 foot,
cutter rig yacht, Nanou. Being a photographer and filmmaker
himself, he agreed to come on board as one of our sponsors. The idea
was to film some of the archaeological sites uncovered by Heyerdahl in
the 80's while expounding some of our own maverick theories on the origins
of the Maldivians. |
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Like Heyerdahl
in his book and film of the same name, The Maldive Mystery, this
was meant to tie in with the subsequent film we were doing on Sri Lanka.
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The journey
from Sri Lanka to the Maldives was for the most part uneventful, but it
gave us a chance to get to know the rest of the crew. Haven and Jason
had joined Martin in Thailand, while Nigel had come aboard in Sri Lanka
with us. The crew had spent their days in Sri Lanka shopping for supplies
and making a few minor repairs on the ship. |
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| The deck watch
schedule and duty roster were made up, and we set sail with the tide in
the late afternoon from Galle harbour. Within the next few
hours, we lost our breeze and had to motor the next two days to Male.
On the morning
of the third day, just as we came in sight of North Male atoll, we became
aware that our trolling line had just hooked a large swordfish. The
crew sprang into action, Rob, Martin, and I grabbed various video and still
cameras while Nigel and Jason reeled it in. Haven and Anne got into
the act as we attempted to land the fish onto the deck. In the ensuing
altercation, the crew sustained a few injuries trying to avoid being impaled
by the sword, but we were able to get most of the melee on film.
Male is the
capital city for the Maldives and the city covers the entire two square
miles of the island. |
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Offshore
Resources Gallery
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| After clearing
customs, and they aregracious enough to come out to greet you, we had to
report in to the harbormaster to arrange for the various permits we would
need to explore the islands.
Getting the
various permits was pretty cut and dry. Basically, you were restricted
from sailing anywhere but within the Male Atoll, which is a fairly large
area, but did not contain any of the archeological sites we were hoping
to explore. You could of course apply for an exemption, but that
could take weeks or even longer, and we were under a time constraint.
Martin had to continue his voyage on to Djibouti, and we were due back
in Sri Lanka to attend a conference.
We decided
to cut our losses and shoot as much as we could and hope that a new focus
for our documentary presented itself. One of the first places we
decided to cover was the Natural History Museum in Male that housed many
of the archeological findings. The museum was surrounded by
a large botanical garden, which covered the whole block. Many of
the artifacts were situated outside the museum building up against the
wall, which worked in our favor since we could bring the camera inside
the museum. |
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| While shooting
some coverage in the garden area, we ran into a guide who was also a coral
reef environmentalist. The impromptu interview we conducted with
him gave us tremendous insight on the ecology of the Maldives reefs.
We concluded
our day hanging around the docks and watching the sunset.It was there that
we ran into Martin and the rest of the crew, and we all headed off to find
a good restaurant and a cyber café, which is the extent of the nightlife
in Male.
The plan was
to leave the following day to take in some of the sights around the Male
Atoll and get some diving in. This required making preparations to
leave and getting a few provisions.
The documentary
crew was exempt from these tasks so we could continue filming some of the
Male culture. |
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Offshore
Resources Gallery
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| Just before
we were to begin our exploration of the Male atoll, we discovered we had
a problem with the fuel line. This meant that we could not leave
until it was fixed and the more pressing problem of not being able to run
the generator. We still had the solar panels and the wind generator;
with those and the small gas powered generator we purchased in town, we
were able to keep the batteries about half charged. This meant we
had to severely restrict our use of electricity until the main generator
was up and running. It took us the better part of two days
to figure out the problem, and that was thanks to the two engineers we
had on board, Martin and Rob.
The next day
after some discussion we set sail for Barros reef, a two-hour sail to the
western side of the atoll and just next to one of the resort islands.
A few of us got in a quick snorkel out to the reef before sunset.
The duty roster called for Rob and I to cook dinner so we pulled out of
few of our swordfish steaks to make a fish curry while the rest of the
gang went for cocktails over at the resort. Over the next few days
we were able to get footage shots of this reef as well as another reef
off the southern tip of the atoll.
The islands
are made up of 26 natural atolls containing some 1192 tiny islands.
Each atoll is enclosed by a coral reef while a protective coral reef and
a shallow lagoon surround all the islands. Coral reef eco-systems
exemplify the richest known types of living communities, unbelievably intertwined
in a complex food and resource collaboration. The coral islands found
in the Maldives are made from the limestone skeletons of tiny invertebrate
organisms. These eco-systems are some of the oldest forms of life
and are literally the skeleton upon which a complex web is draped.
Some of the stony corals are as old as seventy million years. Averaging
about 5 to 28 millimeters of growth a year, once damaged or destroyed a
reef will take years to rebuild.
Reefs serve
the interests of the inhabitants of the Maldives. They are a very
effective way to prevent soil erosion, they create food for the islanders,
and protect them form the ocean environment. New isles are being
formed from the coral growth but the rate of decline is vastly outpacing
the formation.
In the Maldives,
man-made degradation is a result of coral mining for building traditional
coral houses and most recently the resorts. Further, recreation and
boating interests have built jetties and harbors on the small islands.
These structures prevent the natural circular movement of the sand around
the islands and damage the marine ecosystem. As a result, more structures
were built to slow beach erosion and more sand imported to make beaches
look good to tourists. These practices further stress the natural
eco-systems that created the islands a millennia ago.
Although the
Maldives is considered a model of sustainable tourism, are the practices
developed so far working over the long term? Most of the goods and
resources in the Maldives are imported. Resorts are using an increasing
amount of resources in order to raise the standards to those of the western
world. Hot water, swimming pools, air conditioning and large amounts
of diesel fuel to generate electricity are all contributing to increasing
the overall energy cost per guest.
Another pressing
problem is trash management due to the increased usage of modern packaging.
The resorts are required to manage their own trash according to their leasing
agreements. Officially, the government, in 1996, created an island
to which waste can be shipped. Unofficially, resort guides have allegedly
reported illegal dumping of resort waste on various reefs around the atolls.
As we sail
past the small island, the Nanou crew has aptly named trash isle,
heading back to Male harbor this is our final day in the Maldives.
It is already late March. While Rob, Anne, and I are due back in
Sri Lanka to attend the Worldview Conference, Nanou still has to
make it to the Red Sea by mid April. Because of unforeseen delays
and the engine trouble, we realize that we have only been able to explore
one small corner of the vast North Male Atoll. We could have probably
taken another week or two sailing around the area we were restricted to,
north and south Male Atoll. It did, however, give us a chance to
gain an intimate knowledge of the capital city and maybe an insight into
the Maldives culture and history we were seeking.
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