Have you ever been on a dive where you look out not too far away into the distance and see a massive shoal of barracuda’s, jacks, fusiliers or other variety of fish give you that feeling of being small and insignificant in their world? Well, that’s exactly the kind of feeling some fish off the coast of North Sulawesi would have had when they saw a slightly different although extremely large shoal of a completely different species in August this year! 2861 divers went for a 31 minute dive simultaneously off the North Sulawesi capital Manado to earn themselves a new Guinness book record. A press release posted by Hobie on DiveBuddy.com quoted

“We have just smashed a world record today. It gives us pride as we can prove our country is a strong maritime nation,” Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Minister Freddy Numberi said after the mass dive.

The number of participants in Manado set a new world record of “most people scuba diving simultaneously”, breaking the previous mark of 979 set in Maldives in 2006.

North Sulawesi Governor Sinjo Sarundayang, Gorontalo Governor Fadel Muhammad, deputy Navy chief Vice Adm. Moekhlas Sidik and 51 foreigners were among the participants of the record breaking dive, which was held as part of the Sail Bunaken festival.

This couldn’t have been an easy feet and just considering the logistics of arranging such a dive would be a nightmare for even the most seasoned dive operators. A feat of this sort would involve 2,861 sets of masks, air tanks, , regulators, wetsuits and no less than 5722 fins! That is one large dive group to say the least.

If only we had some underwater images of what 2861 divers in the water looked like I’m sure it’s an image the fish of that region won’t forget. For each one of those divers, it would have been something fresh for the long book which most other divers couldn’t claim to have seen on their dives.

Photos by: The Daily Telegraph Australia & iTelegraph uk