Story of three decomposing corpses remains a mystery, say police

Three dead bodies have mysteriously washed up on Maldivian shores in under a month, and police still confess they have no idea who they are.

The first body was found in the lagoon of of the Reethi Rah resort on 15 January, floating three to four feet off the shore. A resort worker told Minivan News the badly decomposed body was discovered by a beach cleaner at 8:30 am in morning, and was collected by a police forensic team that arrived at 12:30 pm that afternoon.

Another body was found near the island of Mahibadhoo in north Ari atoll on 21 January. Police said the body, also badly decomposed, was discovered by a fishing boat. Police took the body for investigation.

The third body was found on a sand bank near the Taj Exotica resorts in Male atoll by staff on a diving expedition.

Police inspector Ahmed Shiyam said that because the bodies were so badly decomposed it was proving very difficult to identify who they are.

”It shows that they have been dead for a long time,” he said.

Shiyam said that the bodies found near Reethi Rah and Taj Exotica were male, while the body found near Mahibadhoo could not be identified as either gender. Neither could the nationalities of the bodies be recognised, he said.

DNA had been taken for analysis, he said, and explained that police were now trying to discover whether any of the bodies were of people reported missing from fishing boats.

”None of [the bodies] have yet matched to the family members of the people who have been reported lost,” he said.

The investigation continues.

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President reiterates commitment to electricity subsidies

The president has revealed the government will further subsidise electricity bills to cushion people in Male’ from rising energy costs.

Speaking in his weekly radio address, President Mohamed Nasheed acknowledged that many households in Male’ were having difficulty with the new electricity prices.

“Our estimate is that about 3000 households struggle to pay their bills. Therefore, the government has decided to provide them with more support,” he said.

President Nasheed also stated that more people were being made aware about the application process for subsidies.

STELCO, the state electricity company, recently dramatically increased the price for the first 300 units of electricity. In response, a group MPs from the ruling government’s own party came forward to urge the government to do something.

The government has said previously that it will broaden eligibility for subsidies, noting that the current eligibility criteria was based on data collected in 1997.

Under that data, the poverty line is considered Rf 21 (US$1.50) a day. The president said that a new survey was under way.

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Civil Servants Association threatens to sue finance ministry if salaries lowered

The Maldivian Civil Servant Association (MCSA) said at a rally yesterday that it will file a lawsuit against the finance ministry if civil servants are given the lowered salary this month.

MSCA spokesman Abdulla Mohamed said the organisation was placing five lawyers on standby.

”The finance minister [Ali Hashim] has personal issues against the civil servants, he’s being stubborn,” Abdulla said, adding that the problems were getting worse “because [Hashim] does not have much knowledge on how to handle a government’s finance ministry.”

”Whatever he thinks is right at the moment, he does. He does not plan things well,” Abdulla claimed.

The ministry’s request that the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) and parliament mediate its dispute between the CSC “is not a solution”, he said, insisting that the ministry needed to “follow the law” and pay the full salaries for this month.

Otherwise, he said, the government would be in debt and owe civil servants the rest of the money.

Abdulla further added that the CSC had been careless, and failed to fulfill its responsibility to ensure the deductions applied the independent commissions, judiciary and police as well as other civil servants.

State Finance Minister Ahmed Assad said holding discussions with just the CSC would not lead to a solution, and that the involvement of a third party was needed.

The civil servants would be receiving the lowered salaries this month, he said. “The MCSA has a right to go to court and file a lawsuit if they have problems with the finance ministry.”

In addition, Assad claimed the CSC did not discuss the restoration of civil servants salary with the finance ministry.

”But they did asked us once: ‘is the country still in the state of a economic crisis?’, and we said ‘yes’,” Assad explained.

Governor of the MMA Fazeel Najeeb said the organisation would not outline its involvement in the arbitration process yet, but would speak to the press in several weeks.

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Fisherman remains lost at sea

A fisherman from Seenu Meedhoo who fell into the ocean on 21 January is still missing.

The coast guard’s search effort locate the man has been unsuccessful despite the authority covering 275 square miles by sea and 580 square miles in a Dornier aircraft.

Ahmed Faruhaad fell into the ocean near a fishing site at Seenu Vilingili. The MNDF have urged all vessels travelling the area to keep an eye out for Faruhaad.

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Husband restrained while wife gang raped

A group of men are alleged to have gang raped a woman on Fuvahmulah after dragging her to a beach and restraining her husband.

Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shameen from Fuvahmulah police said the group of men, “we don’t know how many”, stopped the couple on their motorbike last night before taking them to a remote beach on the island.

The men restrained the husband while the women was raped.

Shameen said police had brought in three men for questioning, while a special team from Male’ had been dispatched to investigate the incident.

“There has been huge support from islanders,” he said, adding that “we are waiting for the doctor’s report to confirm the couple’s condition.”

An island resident familiar with the situation reported that six attackers had used ‘face veils’ to hide their identities, and pointed a knife at the husband’s neck to restrain him.

The islander also said the woman had suffered severe trauma and was not allowing anyone to come near her.

Atoll councillor Hassan Saeed “strongly condemned” the attack and said “the public should work together to stop such indicents.

“We must always work to maintain the peace and harmony of Fuvahmulah,” he said.

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Letter on whale shark research

Dear Editor,

Although somewhat disappointed with the misinterpretation of the work being carried out by our research programme, the Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme (MWSRP) would like to thank all for expressing their opinions and concerns. We would like to take this opportunity to address some of those here.

Because whale sharks spend so much of their lives far from our range of detecting and observing them, tagging and telemetry is a key tool for learning about the basic biology, movements, and habitat needs of these elusive animals. This information is critical for conserving, protecting and managing whale sharks and the various elements of the marine ecosystems that they travel through and feed and reproduce in. The objective of the project is to obtain and provide this information to the Maldivian government agencies that have authority for managing marine resources and to the Maldivian public, non-governmental organizations, and other stakeholders who have interests in using and maintaining vital marine ecosystems throughout the Maldives archipelago.

Preliminary results from the tagging program have emphasised the logic and importance of this approach. It has revealed that whale sharks that spend at least parts of their lives in the Maldives are highly mobile, travelling vast distances and sometimes into unprotected waters on the high seas and other states where they can be vulnerable to fishing and fining attempts.

A large part of the MWSRP’s tagging project is to monitor the behaviour of individual sharks before and after being tagged (both of tagged and untagged individuals). If there was any evidence that the tagging program was having either chronic or acute impacts on individual whale sharks or the group of whale sharks that occurs in Maldivian waters we would terminate it. There is no evidence of adverse effects to individual whale sharks or whale shark abundance owing to the tagging activities of the past two years. Indeed observations and systematic data indicate that there have not been any adverse effects.

Whale sharks have been routinely observed again by us, colleagues, tour boat operators, and resort dive operators within minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years after being tagged. Contrary to claims of some, we have not tagged any sharks at South Ari Atoll since May of 2009; in part to avoid the intense and busy tourist activity along Maamigili Reef in December and January.

The tagging is monitored by the government ministries who supply all relevant permits. All information received from the tags is readily shared within this collaboration. It has been and will continue to be frequently distributed to local dive centers, liveaboards, resorts, local islands and peer-reviewed forums.

In consideration of concerns from stakeholders, the MWSRP, in conjunction with the Government, is limiting (2009 -2010) the number of sharks tagged at Maamigili Reef and in the FenMaaDhiguRan Marine Protected Area. The MWSRP is working with colleagues elsewhere in the Maldives archipelago to tag sharks in other areas, and continuing an active outreach and education program with communities throughout the Maldives to inform them about whale sharks generally to objectively respond to questions and perceptions about tags, tagging methods, and findings.

In response to claims that whale shark abundance or encounters have declined in South Ari Atoll and claims that such declines have been caused by the tagging program, we would be interested and eager to review the data on which these claims are based and the methods that have been used to obtain those data. The MWSRP has encountered just over 20% more whale sharks in December 2009-January 2010 compared with December 2008-January 2009, including many sharks (tagged and untagged) observed during the past several years.

There are many possible reasons why whale sharks may aggregate in certain areas – spatially variable plankton blooms and patterns of local persistence of these whale shark prey are clearly important factors and have explained variability in the number, frequency, and location of whale shark sightings in South Ari Atoll and elsewhere

The whale shark research being conducted in ‘peak season’ (December 2009/January 2010) involves simply making photographs of whale sharks and observations of the sex, degree of scarring, and length of each shark (www.mwsrp.org/research).

The MWSRP invites any and all parties with concerns about ‘the methodology used in tagging’ to contact them. The tags and methods being used have been developed and tested to prevent adverse effects to individual whale sharks or their local abundance and have been subjected to public and government rigorous scrutiny in the United States, Australia, the Philippines and in Kenya where our collaborators have worked previously and are continuing studies in collaboration with other parties including the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

We think that active and continued dialogue with all stakeholders is important for the communication of and response to claims and perceptions. Despite existing on very limited resources the MWSRP prides itself on dedicating a large proportion of its time actively engaging and working with local communities in South Ari Atoll and throughout the Maldives. Our ultimate objective is for the MWSRP to become managed and run by Maldivians.

Ongoing initiatives include giving regular presentations in the area about the whale shark research and conservation and conducting school trips to the whale shark aggregation area. Pupil exchanges between local schools and schools in Qatar and the UK have also been arranged for later this year.

The Adopt a shark scheme has been set up as a way of acknowledging donations to the charity. A visitor “adopting” a shark is not purchasing or taking ownership of an animal they are purely making a donation to the charity and in return the donors receive an update whenever their chosen shark is encountered. This is a common mechanism used by wildlife conservation charities worldwide as a way of raising awareness and funding for conservation initiatives for a variety of animals. The money raised using this mechanism is currently being used to set up a pupil exchange programme with schools within the FenMaaDhiguran MPA and schools in Qatar and the UK.

As for the commercialization concerns we would like to emphasise that we are a registered non-profit charity and all MWSRP researchers are unpaid volunteers. The support we gratefully receive from the Conrad Maldives is in-kind and extends to a vessel and accommodation. In return we train and assist local excursion guides in conducting whale shark tours two days a week. This gives us a valuable insight into the experiences of tour operators and guests alike and gives us further opportunity to educate both parties about whale shark encounter best practice.

We hope this list of points goes someway to addressing some of the concerns expressed recently in Minivan news and the Bluepeace blog. We welcome all further questions. Please email [email protected].

Respectfully,

The MWSRP team

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Whale shark researchers threatened at knife point, lose research permit

The Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme (MWSRP) has had its research permit suspended by the ministry of fisheries and agriculture after complaints about the organisation’s research methods.

“The Divers’ Association and segments of the community complained to us that they were unhappy with the way the research was being conducted,” said Minister of State for Fisheries and Agriculture Dr Hussain Rasheed Hassan.

The ministry was concerned that the research “was not being conducted under the conditions issued”, he said, adding that “the decision was made in consultation with the ministry of tourism and community stakeholders.”

The MWSRP researchers have been involved in an ongoing dispute over the tagging of whale sharks with the Divers Association of the Maldives and a number of safari boat operators, who claim the practice is driving the rarely-seen species away from its habitat and threatening the livelihoods of safari and dive boat operators.

The MWSRP contends that the tagging is harmless and the whale sharks are being driven away by the throngs of boats and swimmers that converge every time a shark breaks the surface.

The dispute reached a head on 13 January when the researchers claimed their vessel was boarded and the crew threatened at knife-point.

MWSRP’s director Richard Rees said eight men from a liveaboard called ‘The Southern Cross’ came alongside the researchers’ vessel on 13 January.

“Their spokesman was armed with a knife,” Rees said. “It started out reasonable. We told him to ask his questions about our research and we would try to answer them.”

The researchers said in a statement that they tried to explain that tagging “does not lead to evasive behaviour in the sharks and is imperative to the conservation of the species”, and that moreover, “we have not tagged in South Ari atoll since May 2009.”

They said the man then accused them “of tagging 300 whale sharks. We explained that there are only 130 known individuals in the whole of the Maldives.”

“He then declared, ‘I have no interest in shark research. I don’t care if hundreds of people come here to see the sharks. I just care about my safari boat businesses.'”

Following the verbal stoush, Rees said the men demanded to see the vessel’s research permit and search the boat.

“We didn’t have the permit with us, so we phoned the ministry of fisheries and agriculture. [The ministry] said we had their full backing, after that the men became aggressive.”

A statement from the researchers claimed the man waved his knife at them and said: ‘I don’t care about the government or research. If you are in the area tomorrow I will bring more safari boats to fight with you and sink your dhoni. If you continue your research I will kill you all.'”

Rees said the man then slashed the banners identifying the ship as a research vessel and said worse would happen if the boat was in the same area the following day.

“It was a real nice experience for us; two of the people on board were on their first day as volunteers,” Rees said, adding that after the men left the vessel the researchers retreated to avoid inflaming the situation further.

“We remained calm and said we were going straight to the police. Then the Southern Cross’s sister ship MV Orion turned up and chased us down, said we didn’t have a permit and continued to harass us.”

Inspector Ahmed Shiyam from Maldives Police Service confirmed a complaint had been filed and that while no arrests had been made, the case was currently under investigation and had been referred to officers in Male.

“We can’t say anything yet. We will investigate and make recommendations to the relevant government authorities,” he said.

Rees said that it was not just the researchers who had been threatened by the liveaboards.

Ismail Mohamed from the water sports section at Diva Resort and Spa said congestion and poor behaviour around whale sharks in early January had led to one of the resort’s guests being hit in the head by a dive dhoni while he was swimming in the water.

“They can’t control the boat that close,” he said, adding that while the guest had escaped with bruising and swelling and was filing a complaint with the resort, a lot of whale sharks also suffered from propeller damage because of the boats getting too close.

The proximity of the reef break near the popular whale sighting spot also meant “that if [other vessels] crash into me and there’s a problem [with the engine], my boat will crash on the reef and I will lose it.”

The crew of some liveaboards had also shown poor behaviour to some of Diva’s guests, “throwing dive weights and showing their naked behinds, which is disappointing behaviour for Maldivians. One guest was very angry, I think he also made a complaint.”

Tagging controversy

Ahmed Risheen from the advisory board of the Divers Association of the Maldives said the tension had been building between the vessels and the researchers because of their tagging methods.

“The sharks are disappearing because they are tagging them and taking samples. It’s a threat [to the shark’s] environment – because of the research there are less whale sharks,” Risheen said.

“They’ve been working for only three years, Maldivians have been watching sharks here for 15 years. We have a really good code of conduct here.”

Risheen also accused the MWSRP of tagging in front of guests, an activity Rees denied.

“We have a policy not to tag when tourists or boats are in the area, because we understand what their responses are going to be,” he replied.

The tagging itself was harmless to the animal, he said, “and the majority do not react. Some swim away, but we catch up and take photos to make sure tagging occurred properly.”

Allegations that researchers had boasted on their website that tagging the sharks was “like drinking coffee on a roller-coaster” were false, the researchers said.

“It is very disappointing that people believe hearsay. Our website is readily available for anyone to read and to be able to contact the MWSRP to obtain the correct information.”

The tagging process was “essential to learn more about them,” Rees insisted. The organisation’s research had revealed that the sharks travelled “enormous distances but come back to the [Maamigilli] area over and over again. “This is important because if the shark goes into international waters there are conservation implications – they are not protected outside the Maldives.”

The tags also recorded depth and temperature, allowing the reseachers to plot the whale sharks’ vertical habitats.

“The sharks spend an awful lot of time very deep and only surface infrequently, often at night. It’s amazing we get sightings at all – this kind of information is of huge value to the tourist industry.”

Opportunities to see whale sharks were unpredictable and “very limited”, he said.

“A lot of liveaboards guarantee ‘whale shark encounters’ which is ludicrous. There’s huge pressure when there are no sharks and they blame it on our research program – we have data that proves this is not the case.”

Risheen insisted that researchers’ conduct in the Maamigilli area, “the only place where you’re guaranteed to see whale sharks”, was affecting vessels’ “businesses and livelihoods.”

As for the attack on the researchers, “I heard that story, and I really regret that a Maldivian diver has done that – we’re trying to track this guy down also. We’ve had a lot of calls from Ari atoll asking us to do something about [the situation] and we’ve been trying, but apparently we were a little late.”

Commercialisation

Risheen also claimed the MWSRP were commercialising their research “through a contract with Conrad [Rangali Island] Resort.”

Dr Hussain Rasheed Hassan said the ministry was also concerned about this, “as the terms and conditions [of the research permit] state that the research must not be exploited for commercial advantage.”

“I visited their website and the researchers are asking people to donate money to sponsor whale sharks – nobody can sponser a whale, nobody has the right except the Maldives government. I’m very concerned about somebody saying they can sponsor our animals.”

Rees said the MWSRP was meeting with the ministry on 30 January to explain the program and the tagging methods that had been used.

“We will also be making our findings available on our website,” he said.

Image provided by the MWSRP.

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New board for Entertainment Ltd

President Mohamed Nasheed has made changes to the board of the Maldives Entertainment Company Limited.

Accordin to Haveeru, the new chairperson is Mariyam Waheedha, of Galolhu Hilman.

Other members of the board are Abdulla Shafeeq, Mohamed Imad, Haasan Zareeru, Ahmed Asif and Ahmed Fahud.

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