1-9th March 2025. FULLY BOOKED. Maldives Liveaboard Workshop. Contact Caroline@scubatravel.com for waitlist places and further information.
Following the popularity and success of the November 2023 blackwater workshop, Scuba Travel are excited to announce a return fixture. In March 2025 Alex Mustard is heading back to Anilao for another workshop with the focus on blackwater photography. The 7 diving day, 8 night workshop is based at Crystal Blue Resort in Anilao, which is famous for its expertise in blackwater diving, made so by resort owner/photographer/blackwater trailblazer Mike Bartick. Target species include argonauts (paper nautilus), many squid (including diamond), settling-phase wunderpus, blanket octopus, crustacean larvae (such as mantis and crab larvae), many fish and larval fish (including African pompano, toothfish and ribbonfish) and multiple jellyfish often with fish or invertebrate hitchhikers and more. We’re returning at a different time of the season so that repeaters have a great chance of filling out their portfolios with a different mix of creatures.
The workshop will be based around three dives each day: an afternoon dive and double blackwater night dive. This means we will be operating on a semi-night shift. Although it is very easy and popular to add a fourth dive each day before lunch (with your regular guide and boat, this is not included in the package and paid for in resort – in 2023 this cost just $25 USD) on the days you want. If doing 4 dives your day will likely be: breakfast at 9am, Dive 1 at 10:30, lunch at 12:30, teaching session 1-2pm, 2:30pm Dive 2, 5-6:30pm rest/massage, 7pm Dinner, 8pm Dives 3&4 blackwater. Return around 11pm. Snacks, download and bed! This timetable would mean that those arriving from the West (Europeans) will have less jet lag than normal, while those from the States etc, will have a bigger time difference and may want to arrive early enough to adapt to the extra time difference created by the nocturnal schedule.
Alex says, “after the last blackwater workshop there were lots of demands to go back as soon as possible! Many of the November 2023 group had never tried blackwater before, but nobody skipped a single blackwater dive and everyone came home with quality images. Blackwater takes a few dives to get used to, and then each extra dive you do just brings more prime encounters with the desirable subjects. That’s why this workshop is planned with an intensive and extensive blackwater schedule.”
“The largest migration on Earth happens every night across the ocean, when mesopelagic animals, that avoid the surface waters during the day, rise up to shallow depths,” explains Alex whose PhD was on zooplankton. “They avoid the sunlit upper layer in the day so that they are not eaten by predators, but under the cover of darkness they can safely ascend to feed in the rich shallow water. The plankton community is made up of both animals that live their whole lives in open water and the larval stages of species that we are familiar with from our regularly diving. Most species of marine animals, including fish and invertebrates have pelagic larval stages that usually look very different to the adult forms because of the necessity to be adapted for life in open water, creating striking underwater subjects.” These are the species we will be targeting on this workshop, which is timed to start at new moon. The group size is limited to 16, and you will be diving in groups of 4 with a guide on your own boat (and own downline for blackwater dives), with Alex (and Mike) joining different boats each day.
Do note that the workshop will also include daily day dives on the famous critter sites of Anilao making the trip highly productive. Anilao is famous for being especially rich in nudibranchs, frogfish and cephalopods and a host of fabulous critters. However, when focused on blackwater it is good not to be tired or nitrogen loaded after a full day of daytime diving, which is why just three dives are planned in the package. The teaching aspects of the workshop will focus primarily on blackwater photography, the techniques for shooting and post processing these images.
VITALS
Dates: 1-9th March 2025 (Manila-Manila).
Price: £2995 GBP, per person, based on double/twin occupancy. 8 nights full board, Manila group transfers. 7 days diving (21 dives in package: 3 dives per day, including 2 night dives). Alex Mustard Blackwater Workshop. Nitrox. 1:4 guide ratio. Group size 16, but diving groups of 4 per boat.
Single supplement: £425 GBP
Please ensure to arrive in Manila before lunchtime on 1st March (at the latest), the workshop begins at 2pm and the first dives are on the afternoon and evening of that day. Transfers from Manila are usually in groups of 4, transfer time unto 3 hours, depending on traffic (hopefully shorter). This may mean you have to wait a short while for other guests before your transfer.
BOOKING
Contact Caroline@scubatravel.com for more information and to book places. A 30% deposit is required to secure your spot. Final balance is due 100 days before travel.
