Shark Island - Fuvahmulah

I feel like Formula is one of those places that's one of the few last hidden gems in the world for diving. It's one of those places that for some reason when Cocos and Galapagos and Indonesia and Mexico when those all those spots were being dived this area got overlooked and then now it's kind of just coming to the surface and everyone's realizing how incredible it is and so I feel like this is the beginning of what's going to change Formula forever. My name is Jono Allen I'm an underwater photographer, free diver, marine scientist and I take people around the world to to meet wildlife face to face and have really up-close and personal encounters. As the mayor of this island, Formula is a different brand of Maldives. It's completely different to the the vision and expectation that people have of five-star resorts, cocktails by the beach, all that kind of thing. It's a much more authentic and culture-full island so there's a way of life here that the locals have established as a culture. They have their life here and we come as guests into their life. It's a beautiful island, they're very respectful, they're very welcoming, they're very very proud of their heritage and their culture and it's a humble island. It's humble and it's full of charm but what it lacks in resorts and pools and fancy things it makes up for in just untouched incredible nature. So the whole of the reef surrounding Formula is a UNESCO biosphere reserve. It's the most biodiverse group of coral in the whole of the Maldives and it has more shark and marine life action here than almost any other place in the world. When you're talking sharks the only places that can stand next to it are places like the Galapagos, like Cocos and Socorro and places like that. It's top tier as far as shark diving goes. no nets, there's no dragging, there's no bycatch, there's no trawling so the tuna population is really healthy. This island for over a thousand years has been surviving off those healthy tuna populations. It's been like the bread and butter of this entire island. Naturally over time as the fishermen were catching the tuna and gutting them and putting the stuff into the water and you know chucking the heads in the water and the guts and that kind of thing where there's fish you know where there's dead fish there's sharks. So the sharks and the fishermen started kind of living together and the more that the island grew the more fishermen were here the more they were chucking dead fish in the water the more the tigers had to clean up. The whole relationship between tiger sharks and this island is just incredible and there's so much to learn there. Over time there's just been this build-up of tiger population here to the point where now plus there's obviously the tigers that hunt and that have their own you know natural existence here as well but now there's over 160 recorded individuals tigers just visiting that one harbour and then there's expected to be three times that out in the blue at the plateau. So just an exceptionally large population of tigers here which is you know on a global scale probably unparalleled in the sense where there's that many tigers that you're able to dive with and see underwater and experience them in a safe environment. When you dive out of a cage when it's just you and the tiger shark in their environment face to face in their habitat the best and the first thing that you do is you're going in with the right mindset. So when you have a cage and you have this kind of barrier between you and the shark you're already victimizing the shark straight away and you're you know you're saying it's dangerous and you're in that mindset and in certain situations with great white sharks basically only great white shark that's needed but when you free dive with tiger sharks and you go into their environment and you understand the nature of tiger sharks and how they are as creatures you know there's no need for cages there's no need for for coming in with sticks to keep them away and fight them off it's if you have that kind of stuff you don't understand tiger shark. If you're going in with poles to keep them away from you you're going with a cage and you're you're going in with this kind of fear that you have to keep them off you like you do not understand tiger sharks like that's not what these creatures are like that's not what these animals are like you you've just misunderstood the entire relationship between humans and sharks yeah when you dive with tiger sharks with people who really understand them and so we dive with Lono who's been doing this for nine years you are taught the true nature of sharks.