It was finally a day where we didn't schedule anything until the evening. We had the WHOLE DAY ahead of us!
Until we didn't, of course. We had a pretty casual morning, snorkeling in the seagrass just to stay cool in the heat. At noon we walked over to the SHELL to get a tour. SHELL stands for: Sea Hub of Environmental Learning in Laamu. It has been open less than a year, with the official opening in March 2023 and houses the MUI group, Maldives Underwater Initiative, which is a marine conservation collaborative consisting of 10 Six Senses marine biologists and partner NGOs, The Manta Trust, Blue Marine Foundation and the Olive Ridley Project.
Walking around the outside is an interactive experience, with small displays set up covering topics such as the ecosystem of the ocean, turtles, manta rays, sharks and more. There is also an area called the Tank, which has an LED display floor and five viewing booths to learn more about what is underwater. It features diverse underwater scenes of the Laamu Atoll to give insights into selected micro-topics on marine life.
Additionally, they just opened a small lab off one of the ends of the SHELL in which they're looking to study and learn more about what is around them. When we were given our tour the lab currently held four separate large tanks in which they were helping to create baby coral. A few years prior their coral was down to 10% around the atoll but over the more recent time has been able to bounce back to 55%. This is due to the efforts they have put in to help preserve the area around them and educate other locals on the importance of marine life. They are anticipating, due to climate change and global warming, there to be some coral bleaching this year and are hoping to be able to support regrowth of coral in the future with what they are able to grow in the lab.
From there we walked over to Sip Sip for some lunch by the pool. We decided to split two small pizzas, realizing when the pizzas arrived we probably didn't need two, but it's vacation so why not?! We hung out for a bit before going back to the room to relax.
Around 6pm that night we boarded a boat to take us on our sunset dolphin cruise. There are two types of dolphins that hang out in and around the atoll. One is the bottlenose dolphin which most people recognize the most and was made famous due to Flipper. The other are spinner dolphins which are much smaller than the bottlenose but also more playful, and get their name due to their nature to jump and spin out of the water.
Our marine biologist onboard noted that spinner dolphins are typically the ones more often seen in the atoll and usually are in groups of 20-30 or more. They've seen pods up to 100 and more infrequently even as many as 300-500. When asked why, they were honest and said they weren't truly sure but think that it's more for the social aspect as dolphins are very social animals. Think of it as a large family reunion.
We were out on the boat for a little while not feeling too confident we were going to see anything until we turned around a bit and started headed off in a different direction. Sure enough, ahead of us there was a pod of around 20 bottlenose dolphins swimming all around. At first we thought there was a possibility they were spinner dolphins because it was a slightly larger pod and they were occasionally slapping their tail in the water or jumping out, but they were just extra playful! We spent a good while watching them swim around and play before heading back in.
Dinner that night was at Zen, the Japanese restaurant. Prior to that we grabbed a drink downstairs since our reservation wasn't until 8pm. As we were having our drink one of the waiters came over to us apologizing for last night, saying that he heard about it through a group text a few of the workers had. We reitereated it wasn't a big deal and there was nothing they needed to apologize for. However, they seemed to have heard as well what happened upstairs at Zen as well, because that night we had the meal of our lives. Our service was incredible, our waiter was telling us how he had the day off tomorrow and was going to spend it at home, just a short 5 minute boat ride away and then go fishing the following night. He told us to order whatever we wanted on the menu and he'd make sure there was enough to share. We ordered some sushi rolls, which came with 5 pieces per roll, each of ours showed up with six, plus some additional pieces of sashimi they threw in. To end the meal we had lobster tartare, which I didn't even know that was something you could do with lobster. Definitely one of our top 3 meals of the trip. Unfortunately for us, New Hampshire doesn't have sushi that's this good. Surprising, I know.
