Maldives
Schooling bluestripe snappers and bannerfish mingle with fusiliers and oriental sweetlips. Juvenile blacktip reef sharks are common in the lagoon, and white-tip reef sharks appear along the outer wall. Beyond the sandy training area, there are coral blocks and isolated rocks with yellow boxfish, shrimp in the tentacles of anemones, blennies, octopuses, clownfish and a juvenile emperor angelfish.
The 5.8 Undersea Restaurant is here; it opened in late 2016 and is described as the world's largest all-glass underwater restaurant, and its name comes from its depth of 5.8 m. Reef sharks, octopuses, parrotfish, moray eels and tiny mantis shrimp pass by around it. The landscape around the restaurant was created by dive instructor Paige Bennett using dislodged coral blocks; the corals grew back and attracted many species. The Hurawalhi resort opened in December 2016.
In the atoll, the resident marine biologist runs a photo-identification project for green turtles with the help of divers; whoever spots a new turtle can name it, and more than 100 have been identified. In the region, diving is possible year round; from December to March good visibility and dry weather tend to be more common, while the wet season, from May to August, may reduce visibility. In Lhaviyani, manta rays tend to appear from November to March, and reef sharks, turtles and eagle rays tend to be seen throughout the year.
Information on this page, including technical data such as depth, current, visibility, access, and recommended level, is informational and may vary. Confirm actual conditions with a local operator before the dive.
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Reviews are from other divers — personal experiences, not guarantees.