Joanna James
Sandy islands grouped together, glistening lagoons and the warm Indian Ocean home to a myriad of marine life, makes the Maldives one of the world's best dive locations and venue for island lifestyles.
An extremely popular dive site, Fotteyo Kandu is home to a myriad of colourful coral and fish. Adding excitement to your tour are the swim-throughs, caves and overhangs. At deeper depths, you will come across plenty of yellow and a few black corals. Marine life to spot includes yellowfin tuna, large schools of snapper, reef sharks and jack. There is a 'thila' in the middle of the channel which is ideal for your safety stop.
Named after the strong current that flows through the channel, Kuredu Express offers many sights at different depths. Look out for reef sharks, stingrays, eagle rays and barracuda. The occasional manta ray too is spotted at this point.
Okobe Thila is made up of three pinnacles; ranging in depth from 35 feet to 165 feet. An ever present current means you generally end up spiralling up and around the thila. A good collection of coral is visible here together with white tipped reef sharks, bannerfish and tuna.
Ellaidhoo is famous for its extensive coral reef housing a myriad of marine life and organisms. Diving here is quite a treat. Home to Ellaidhoo Maldives by Cinnamon the reef around the island abounds in all manner of fish that most divers when exploring the ocean seem to forget the land above. Look out for reef sharks, manta rays and even turtles while the stunning coral clusters are sights to enjoy. A good location to look for the best Maldives resort North Ari Atoll is the largest cluster in the archipelago.
As the name suggests this is a unique phenomenon as a large canyon separates the reef in two. You will spot huge fan coral, turtles, napoleon wrasse, moray eels and scorpion fish in the canyon. The reef, of course, is covered with clusters of colourful coral.
The pinnacle is teardrop shaped and well known for its stunning scenery as well as the abundant marine life. The coral covered walls are visited by large numbers of big eye trevally as well as red bass. You will also run into eagle rays, grey sharks and white tipped reef sharks. Safety stops on the reef top is a pleasure as you look out for turtles and batfish.
This is one of the marine protected areas on the archipelago. Home to a small reef that's inundated with loads of soft coral and colourful reef fish the thila offers a unique adventure. This is in the form of exploring a large overhang and arch which is best discovered with the aid of an underwater torch.
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