Maldives Holidays: Are You Angling for an Oriental Sweetlip?

Although fishing probably wouldn’t make the top ten of most people’s foreign holiday activities, it is in fact a very popular recreational pursuit amongst tourists, especially in well-stocked areas of the world such as the Maldives.
For in the Maldives, with its extensive variety of marine life, tourism and fishing is big business – the island’s first and second largest industries respectively. Up until 1985, fishing was still the number one industry in the Maldives until tourism finally took over.

Despite this, the latest official figures show that the fishing industry is still strong. It accounts for 20% of the income for the population and employs around 22,000 people in fishing related activities.

Catering for the healthy interest to be found in the noble art of fishing amongst the many thousands of tourists in the Maldives are a growing number of resorts that are geared specifically towards satisfying this hunger for the catch.
Going a long way towards explaining the passion for fishing in this corner of the world is the following list (not exhaustive) of aquatic life to be found in the region and quite an exotic read it is too. In no particular order apart from alphabetical: Angelfish, Barracuda, Blue Lined Snapper, ButterflyfFish, Clownfish, Dolphinfish, Eagle Ray, Grey Reef Shark, Groupers, Long Nose Hawkfish, Manta Ray, Moorish Idol, Napoleon Rasse, Oriental Sweetlip, Parrotfish, Rainbow Runner, Stingray, Trevally, Triggerfish, Tuna, Whale Shark, and Zebra Shark.

Adding further oomph to this list are the words of the one-time President of the Maldives who once uttered words to the effect that fishing was the very lifeblood of the Maldives, that it had been grafted onto the national psyche through countless generations of Maldivian fishermen.
Indeed, the fishing industry currently accounts for almost half the workforce in the Maldives.

To ensure that tourists do not fall foul of national fishing laws rather than just experiencing a foul look from locals whose patch they may have inadvertently strayed upon, a number of distinct (to the Maldivians at least) locations in the Maldives have been designated as fishing zones – the inner coral lagoons, the outer coral shelf, and the deep ocean.

It is a matter of historical fact that the Maldives Islands are not able to call on the resource of inland lakes within which to fish due to their relatively small size of the islands, however, the afore-mentioned inner coral lagoons are a substantial supplier of aquatic life because of the significant instances of land subsidence that have taken place over many years.

As far as the outer coral shelf is concerned, although it does not provide a similar level of fish stock as the inner lagoons do, it is a resource, albeit one on the sleight side of the fishing equation.

But the deep ocean is different. Its fish stocks are bigger, better and exceedingly diverse. Here the dedicated fisherman may find the likes of bait fish, schooling forage fish or perhaps a pelagic fish – a lovely catch it has to be said. Also available for those who really want to push the boat out are their larger cousins, tuna and shark. This area of the Maldives truly is the holy grail for those angling aficionados who will really stop at nothing in the quest for the greatest haul of all.

Whether or not a traveller on a fishing trip to the Maldives Islands catches up with an Oriental Sweetlip or not, this is an adventure with few equals. Leaving aside the importance of fishing and tourism to the Maldives for a moment, the simple truth is that this area of the world is a magnificent spectacle, an undeniably fishy nirvana.