16 sites, described by ground and depth. What is found on each
one is not published — naming the exact spot a rare animal sits on is how it gets
crowded and moved on. The species recorded at this destination are listed below, and the
reasoning is set out in the editorial policy.
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Maaya Thila
North Ari Atoll · Boat · Coral · 6–30 m
A thila, meaning a submerged coral pinnacle that does not break the surface. It is roughly circular and about 80 metres across, with its top plateau at 6 metres sloping gently to 12 metres before the sides fall away past 30 metres. The flanks are cut by small caves, overhangs and one short swim-through, with coral blocks standing off the base.
Currents change in direction and strength, so divers normally descend and ascend on a fixed line rather than drifting. The site is a designated marine protected area.
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Fish Head (Mushimasmingili Thila)
Ari Atoll · Boat · Coral · 10–35 m
A small thila, a submerged pinnacle, rising to about 10 metres at its shallowest point and dropping steeply on all sides to 35 metres and below. The steep faces carry a line of caves and deep overhangs, with ledges and vertical rock between them.
Current is often strong and can change direction without warning. A descent and ascent line is normally used and safety stops are made in open water away from the pinnacle. Marine protected area.
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Kudarah Thila
South Ari Atoll · Boat · Coral · 12–40 m
A thila, a submerged pinnacle, lying inside the atoll rim in line with an ocean channel, its top at about 12 metres and its base on sand at around 40 metres. The top is broken into four separate coral heads separated by narrow gaps, and the outer walls are undercut by overhangs.
Water pushing in from the ocean channel sweeps the pinnacle, so the dive is usually run around the perimeter or on the sheltered downstream side. Marine protected area.
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Broken Rock
South Ari Atoll · Boat · Rock · 12–25 m
A large reef block split from top to bottom by a diagonal canyon, the highest point of the rock at about 12 metres and the base at 25 metres. The canyon runs through the whole structure with near-vertical sides and numerous cracks and crevices in its walls.
The canyon is normally swum only in slack or weak current. There is no shallow reef top for a safety stop, so this is done in open water.
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Hammerhead Point (Rasdhoo Madivaru)
Rasdhoo Atoll · Boat · Wall · 25–40 m
The outer wall of the atoll rim, dropping vertically from the reef top into open ocean water more than 200 metres deep, with no bottom in sight below. Divers leave the wall and hang in open blue water off its face, returning to the wall to end the dive.
Run at first light as a deep blue-water drift. Current is usually strong and the depth means short bottom times and a strict maximum depth set by the guide.
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Fotteyo Kandu
Vaavu Atoll · Boat · Wall · 15–40 m
A kandu, meaning a channel cutting through the atoll rim between the ocean and the inner lagoon. Steep walls on both sides fall from about 15 metres to 40 metres and beyond, honeycombed with small caves, swim-throughs and large overhangs. A small thila stands in the middle of the channel mouth.
Dived on the incoming tide as a drift. Current is strong and can exceed three knots with occasional down-currents, so a negative entry and a reef hook are standard. The mid-channel pinnacle is used for the safety stop.
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Alimatha Jetty
Vaavu Atoll · Jetty · White sand · 1–8 m
A flat white sand bottom in a sheltered lagoon beneath and around a resort jetty, shelving very gently from the shallows to about 8 metres. The concrete and timber jetty piles stand on the sand and are encrusted, forming the only vertical structure on the site.
Almost always dived after dark. Current is slight and depth is shallow throughout. Some operators moor a boat clear of the jetty and enter from it rather than from the jetty itself.
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Manta Point (Lankan Kandu)
North Male Atoll · Boat · Coral · 8–25 m
A section of outer reef with a flat top at about 8 to 12 metres, on which stand several isolated coral blocks a few metres high separated by sand patches. Beyond the blocks the reef slopes away over sand to about 25 metres and then continues down to an edge near 40 metres.
Current is normally mild to moderate and the dive is usually held stationary on the sand among the coral blocks rather than drifted. Operators quote different depths, some working the shallow blocks only and others the slope below.
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Banana Reef
North Male Atoll · Boat · Coral · 10–25 m
A long reef curved in the shape of a banana, with a shallow top and a steep outer face falling to about 25 metres. Between 10 and 25 metres the face is cut by caves, caverns and overhangs, and the eastern end has a rocky section where the two sides of the reef meet.
Current varies and is strongest at the exposed eastern end, where it can be turbulent, so the dive is usually run as a drift with the flow and finished on the sheltered side.
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HP Reef (Girifushi Thila, Rainbow Reef)
North Male Atoll · Boat · Coral · 12–25 m
A thila, a submerged pinnacle, sitting at the mouth of a channel, with a top at about 12 metres and a base near 25 metres. Large detached boulders lie against its flanks forming overhangs and swim-throughs, and a cave on one side rises as a vertical chimney from 25 metres to 10 metres.
Current is almost always running and the dive is a drift. The site lies next to a military training area on Girifushi and is closed whenever a red flag is flown.
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Maldive Victory
North Male Atoll · Boat · Wreck · 12–35 m
A steel cargo ship of about 83 to 100 metres, sunk in 1981 and lying upright on a flat bottom at 35 to 37 metres southwest of Hulhule island. The mast and superstructure reach up to about 12 metres, the main deck lies near 25 metres, and the hull holds open holds, corridors and a wheelhouse.
The wreck stands in the tidal stream off the airport channel, so it is dived close to slack water on a mooring line. Depth and current make it an advanced dive.
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Guraidhoo Kandu
South Male Atoll · Boat · Wall · 15–35 m
A kandu, a channel through the atoll rim, made up of two separate channels with a central reef called Medhu Faru between them; a faru is a section of reef flat forming part of the atoll rim. The southern channel runs about 300 metres between vertical walls above a sand floor, with a rock archway at 30 metres, and the outer corner drops to 35 metres.
Dived on both incoming and outgoing water as a drift. Current strengthens further into the channel and spring tides are usually avoided. Marine protected area. Sources give the deep limit as 30 to 35 metres but do not agree on the shallow end.
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Embudhoo Express (Embudhoo Kandu)
South Male Atoll · Boat · Wall · 10–30 m
A kandu, a channel through the atoll rim, entered at the outer corner where the wall drops to about 30 metres and then followed inward. The south side holds a series of caverns and caves, one running back almost 25 metres, a narrow canyon splits off into the channel, and a thila on the north side rises from a 30 metre base to about 12 metres.
Dived only on the incoming tide as a fast drift. A reef hook is used to hold position on a ledge at the corner and the dive finishes over shallow reef inside the channel. Marine protected area.
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Hanifaru Bay
Baa Atoll · Boat · Coral · Snorkelling only, no scuba
A small enclosed bay in the reef of an uninhabited island, shaped like a keyhole, twice as wide at its ocean mouth as at its inner end and about the area of a football pitch. The floor is sand and reef sloping to a maximum of roughly 20 metres at the mouth and shallowing towards the closed inner end.
Scuba diving is prohibited and the site is snorkelling only. Entry requires a paid permit and a licensed guide, is limited to 45 minutes and 45 people in the water at once with a maximum of five vessels, and the bay is a marine protected area inside the Baa Atoll UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.
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Kuredu Express
Lhaviyani Atoll · Boat · Wall · 10–25 m
A kandu, a channel through the atoll rim, with three distinct parts: a sandy channel floor, a reef corner stepped into terraces at several depths, and two large overhangs where the outer reef begins. The corner is the pivot of the dive and the walls beside it fall away steeply.
Named for the strong current that runs through the channel and dived as a drift. Published figures give 25 metres as the working maximum; the shallow end is not consistently stated.
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Fuvahmulah Harbour (Tiger Harbour)
Fuvahmulah · Boat · Mixed · 8–30 m
The seabed immediately outside the artificial harbour entrance of a single oceanic island that has no atoll lagoon and rises like a vertical cliff from very deep water. Sand and loose rock lie at 6 to 12 metres at the harbour mouth, then a wall with sand ridges and little coral drops from about 10 metres to 30 metres and beyond into open ocean.
About five minutes by boat from the harbour. Dived with a fixed briefing and a guide-set depth limit, and conditions in open ocean water outside the harbour wall can include strong current.
Site names are as the operators and guides here use them. Descriptions
are drafted and need correcting by someone who dives them. Tell us what is wrong and it
will be corrected.
