Raa Atoll, with its dive sites Fenfushi Giri and Reethi Thila, also holds immense fish variety and volume, from Napoleon wrasse to tuna, and Reethi Thila is good for a bit of macro as well. Divers should also note that the channels of Lhaviyani Atoll are another great place to see tons of sharks in the northern atolls. In the adjacent blue water, triggers, tuna, and barracuda add to the action. With a hard coral garden at the top, Christmas Tree Rock is often cited by divers as one of their favorite northern atolls dive sites.Īt Lhaviyani Atoll, the dive site Madivaru hosts abundant fish life in the crevices and overhangs of its vertical wall, from butterflyfish to Napoleon wrasse. Reef sharks and rays rest in the dark and large pelagics like tuna stream through the blue water off the sides. Adding to the Christmas tree imagery, small dancing fish of vibrant pink, yellow, and blue ornament the different levels of the ìtreeî with their bright colors. The topography here consists of large shelves of life-encrusted rock that divers can peer under and swim through to search for big and small reef inhabitants. Noonu Atoll's Christmas Tree Rock is also worth a visit. This dive site is ideal for checking out a whole community of sharks doing their thing, from small juveniles to adults over three meters long. Expect your dive guide to bring you to a resting point just down-current, where you can kneel in comfort without disturbing the inhabitants.
At a dive site called Orimas Thila, there is a channel where grey reef sharks swarm in numbers of twenty or higher. The northern atolls can be a bit of a downer for shark-lovers, except for Noonu Atoll. Only sixty people are allowed in the bay at one time to see the rollicking, rolling behavior that the bay's abundance of food brings out in these normally sedate giants of the sea.
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As a World Biosphere Reserve, Hanifaru Bay is an unparalleled draw for marine life enthusiasts, professional photographers, and researchers. This area does not even allow diving, but Baa Atoll liveaboards will be sure to visit it from May through December for an incomparable sight: huge aggregations of both manta rays and whale sharks going wild in a plankton-eating frenzy that is perhaps more high-energy than anywhere else in the world. Whip corals, bushy black corals, and other photogenic benthic life give additional diversity to the site.īaa Atoll might be most famous for Hanifaru Bay. While schools of tiny silvery fish and jacks dance out their predator-prey drama along the sides of the pinnacle, slower-moving reef fish stand sentinel in the sheltered areas, and colorful reef-flat inhabitants play in the pinnacle's shallows. Dhonfaru Thila is the best northern atolls dive site to see these iconic creatures.ĭhigali Haa is not famous for mantas, but it also hosts great fish biomass. Dhonfanu Thila also sports Baa's typical interactive topography of overhangs and swim-throughs.
Soldierfish and snappers lurk in overhangs, fusiliers shimmer in the blue water, and tons of other reef species make sure that there's always movement enlivening the scene. Fish life, black corals, hard corals, and whip corals complete the scene.ĭhonfanu Thila lacks Maavaru Kandu's soft corals, but in every other respect, it offers the best in Baa Atoll liveaboard diving. The visuals at Maavaru Kandu are unlike anywhere else in the Maldives. You can view these soft corals all around (and even above) you from within enormous overhangs whose ceilings are just as decorated as the floor. Hard coral quality varies in Baa Atoll, but at the dive site Maavaru Kandu, you won't miss it when you witness the enormous carpets of swaying soft corals that cover every square inch of the rocky surface with a glow of blue, yellow, orange and green. Baa's relative solitude compared with Male and its neighbors can really heighten one's enjoyment of the treasures waiting underwater.
Baa Atoll in the north of the Maldives is known for having loads and loads of fish, a great variety of species, fun topography (especially overhangs), awesome manta-viewing, and not a lot of liveaboards crowding the scene.
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