The Tortuba Index: Evidence-First Dive Discovery

Ask the internet “where can I see whale sharks?” and you get two kinds of answers: brochure copy that promises everything, and forum threads from 2014. Neither tells you what you actually want to know — where, in which months, with what odds, and says who.

The Tortuba Index is my attempt at a better answer. It has three parts, and one rule.

Three indexes, one question each

Animals answers where and when can I see this species? Each animal hub covers the species itself — what it is, how big, how it behaves — and then maps the locations where encounters are realistic, with the peak season for each. Because “you can see whale sharks in the Maldives” is nearly useless without “and the window at this atoll is roughly August to November.”

Locations answers what can I see here? The inverse view: pick a destination and see which species are realistically on the menu, and when. Useful when the trip is already booked and you want to know what to hope for.

Dive centers answers who actually runs these encounters? Centers are listed against the specific animal-location claims they support — not as a general directory, but as the operators connected to the sightings in question.

The rule: every claim carries its evidence

This is the part I care about. Each animal-location-center claim in the index stores four things:

• A source — where the claim comes from, with the relevant snippet, so you can judge it yourself.
• A confidence rating — I say “Likely” when that is what the evidence supports, rather than rounding everything up to “guaranteed.”
• A peak window — the months that matter, because marine life runs on seasons, not on your vacation calendar.
• A last-verified date — dive operations change, sites close, seasons shift. A claim checked in 2026 says so; a stale one will too.

No encounter with a wild animal is ever guaranteed, and I refuse to pretend otherwise. What I can do is show my work: here is the claim, here is where it came from, here is how confident I am, here is when I last checked. You decide.

Built to grow, honestly

The index launches deliberately small. Right now the whale shark hub is live, mapped to the Maldives, with a verified dive center attached — and you can see draft entries (manta rays, wobbegongs) sitting openly in the queue rather than padded out with thin content. I would rather publish one claim I can stand behind than fifty copied from someone’s marketing page.

Each hub grows the same way: gather sources, extract the claim, rate the confidence, date the verification, publish. When the evidence is weak, the confidence rating says so. When I have not checked recently, the date says so.

Why a logbook company builds a discovery index

Because they are the same project. Tortuba has been a dive log and species guide since 2012 — the app exists so you remember the fish you saw and where you saw it. The index is that idea pointed forward: the fish you could see, and where. Log a manta ray in the app and you will understand why I want the next diver to know the honest odds of meeting one.

Start with the animals index, or see what Tortuba does with the sightings once you are back on the boat.