Over the last few weeks we have handed our weekly marine life series over to renowned photographer and journalist, Stefan Beskow.
Stefan has travelled the world and dived just about every corner of it. Having chosen Emperor Divers to do much of his underwater work, we asked him to take us through some of his favourite experiences.
Unfortunately we have reached the last of this special series and to finish Stefan looks at one of the diver’s most enchanting sightings – the beautiful eagle ray.
Eagle rays are probably the most graceful inhabitants of the reef.
I still get warm inside when I think about the Southern Shark Adventure trip I did from Emperor Voyager in the deep south of the Maldives in March 2023.
Me and my buddy Klas had inspected sharks in one of the amazing channel dives in Huvadhoo Atoll. As we then drifted into the channel we came to an area of white sand.
There were about 20 eagle rays swimming around! The current had subsided and we stopped for a long time to observe the beautiful animals.
It was a quite incredible and very memorable experience.
The most common eagle ray in the Maldives is the spotted eagle ray. It is sometimes seen in shoals and can grow up to 3m but usually the individuals you see in the Maldives are smaller than that.
If you would like to find out what it is like to swim with eagle rays as Stefan did, have a look at our Maldives trips and book yourself the experience of a lifetime