Christmas Tree

Noth-West of Iru Fushi next to a large reef which reaches to the surface, one of the most precious Thilas in Noonu Atoll rises up from the 30 m. deep sandy bottom.

From a little distance the profile of the reef looks like a Christmas tree, deep and shallow over- hangs at the bottom with layers, plateau’s and overhangs until the top part of the reef.

The sandy bottom with the overhangs is the ideal place for nurse, guitar and leopard sharks to take a rest.

The soft corals covering the reef are a tasty appetizer for green and hawksbill turtles.

Clouds of golden and jewel fairy basslets give the top part of the Thila a shiny glow, while schools of medium size jack fishes make their turns to catch the smaller reef fishes like the red tooth trigger fish, fusiliers, glass fishes and small groupers.

The coral life is astounding, soft and hard corals give the photographers and videographers no chance to put even one finger on the reef to balance themselves for shooting.

Source: Sun Diving School

Iguraidhoo

The South-East reef of the uninhabited Island, Iguraidhoo, is a feeding station for manta rays, seeing them darting on the surface they give you the impulse to jump straight away in the water.

A large coral block at a depth of 5 meters is crowded with glass fish, emperors, oriental sweet lips, cleaning fish and white-edged soldier fish.

The reef slopes down to a sandy bottom at 25 meters of depth and finger, green stony, huge builder and table corals are separated by clusters of a variety of sponges.

Parrot fishes scrape off the surface of the builder corals with their sharp teeth while bypassing tunas divide shoals of fusiliers.

Source: Sun Diving School

Kaalhu Maizaan

Gemendhoo is a very small Island, actually only a couple of trees surrounded by a white sandy beach and a resting place for black birds.

The maximum depth is 18 meters with a steep reef, small over hangs at different depths with colorful decorated roofs and purple whip corals are mixed with small gorgonian and spiral black corals on the bottom.

The overhangs vary from fairly large to small size (with lobsters inside) and drifting with the current from North to South, fusiliers and surgeon fishes hover in the blue while the damselfishes and oriental sweetlips prefer to stay close to the table, staghorn and warty bush corals.

The South side of the reef is completely covered with green stony corals popping up like little trees and blooming, showing off countless polyps when there is some current.

Source: Sun Diving School

Minaavaru

The East side of the Island Minaavaru has a beautiful reef dropping from 2 meters until 18 meters of depth.

An easy dive, even when currents appear. Between varieties of hard corals, cream colored ‘loped pore corals’ are scattered around the reef and indicates, that with a growth rate of 9 mm per year that the El Nino didn’t affect this part of the Maldives. On top of the pore corals the colorful tentacles of the tube worms make the decoration complete.

Small green, blue and soft brown table corals are hosting a variety of damsel and pallet surgeon fishes.

Schooling hump back, red, black and blue stripe snappers are very aware of the dogtooth tunas and jack fishes that pass by, stone eyed, but ready for quick action.

Don’t miss out on the turtles and octopus on this reef!

Mantas can be seen feeding on the surface.

Source: Sun Diving School

Toshi Caves

As Kudey Kandu is a real corner Toshi caves can be considered as a very round and large shaped corner.

Even with strong currents it is a fairly easy channel dive, the reef drops off steep from the surface to 30 meters of depth and a variety (in shape and size) of caves gives the dive site a special dimension. Something completely different, the reef looks from a distance quite grim but close up there is a lot of macro life to discover.

Scorpion, stone and lion fish, shrimps and crabs mingle with the reef and you need a sharp eye to find them.

A pleasant ride with: and a very interesting reef without currents. Blotched fantail and feather tail sting rays are numerous and large green turtles move from cave to cave.

At shallower depth schooling snappers, long nosed emperors, big job fish and fusiliers are present.

It is recommended to bring a torch.

Source: Sun Diving School

Angel reef

Stunning hard corals from top to bottom (18 meters) in a amazing variety; ‘undate’ hard corals cluster together with lattice, neat, nosey, Samoan, cylinder, Evermanns and flame corals, they are pushing away the sluk-like, scuted and common mushroom corals ,leaving barely space for sponges, long pipe and mushroom leather corals.

Pink bulb tentacle anemone corals host the Clark’s anemone fish at large while blue sea, granulated and noduled Sea Stars feed on the polyps of the corals, algae’s, and worms. In turn, they are preyed upon by trigger fishes, trochus shells and crustacians.

The reef is ideal for beginners and experienced diver who prefer colorful reef fishes at a shallower depth.

The reef lingers on with small sandy sloping patches in between the hard coral formations, which are present in a variety of shape and structure.

Source: Sun Diving School

Downfall

The corner of this reef is crowded by surgeon fish, fuseliers, humpback and five line snappers.

The maximum depth is 20 meters and in the downfall, black corals, gorgonian sea fans and whip spiral corals lead the way to brain and builder corals on the bottom side of the reef. Garden eels swing with elegance against the mild current in the sandy bottom.

Yellow Clathria, a fine maze network of soft coral, a look alike of large spider webs, cover parts of the reef and give it a golden glow.

Large giant, necklace and fluted giant clams are situated in the narrows of the builder corals or attached in the cracks of the rocky parts of the reef.

Table and finger corals are the play ground and hiding place of a variety of damsel fishes and are worth a ‘close up’ look.

Blue, clown and picasso trigger fishes are among the long nose file and white spotted box fishes and seem quite tranquil compare to the dancing skunk and Maldivian anemone fishes.

Discover more on this beautiful reef which is an easy dive site!

Source: Sun Diving School

Salims Lot

With the current flowing in to the Atoll, this dive site has everything to offer.

Even with strong currents the dive is very easy and enjoyable.

The corner drops down to 20 meters and has ’the lot’, considering space, ambience and fish life; fuseliers, yellow, red and black snappers, rainbow runners, jackfish and emperors move around and make a spectacle staying ‘head on’ in the current.

After the corner the reef rises up to 12-14 meters and there is where the real fun starts, this drift dive is an easy ‘stunner’ and takes you over a very wide terrace, with stony hard corals and spiky soft corals spread out.

Sting and eagle rays might pass by or dwelling the bottom in search for crustaceans (crabs) or sea urchins.

More inside the channel large builder corals pop up and are the ideal hiding place for the

Hawksbill, green and the rare humpback turtles, from small to very large size.

Honeycomb and giant moray eels waver out of their holes waiting for red tooth trigger fish to swallow, once they come to close by.

Different colored puffer, clown, angel and damsel fishes are lightening up the reef and behind rocky formations, oriental sweet lips and emperors staying motionless, enjoying the easy breathing.

A breeze of a dive for beginners and advanced divers!

Source: Sun Diving School

Snow White

Wonderful world, beautiful reefs!

On top of the reef, large table corals promise already a breath taking dive, with a maximum depth of 17 meters, fields of garden eels stick out their heads of the snow white sandy bottom.

The best part of the reef is around 10 meters of depth with interesting coral blocks at 15 meters. Gobies, hermit crabs, sea stars and sea cucumbers can be discovered on and in the sandy bottom while feather tail worms and blennies can be found in the coral blocks.

The reef is marvelous; the red berry, imposter and flabelliform sponges form a colorful background for the green, blue and light brown colored finger corals. Grey, blue and red damsel fishes are lucky to have this amount and variety of hard corals to regard as their home, to seek protection when the moray eels, scorpion fishes, lion fishes and groupers come for dinner at night.

Big jack fish, turtle, eagle ray, tunas, barracudas and schooling red snappers pass by or stay at the corner at shallow depth.

Source: Sun Diving School

Saeed Ge Hadiya

The inside wall of this channel rises up from a depth of 24 meters to an incredible top reef completely covered with hard corals.

The overhangs in the wall are filled up with black corals and a number of other animals like the giant winged pearl oyster, Cock’s comb oyster and black coral shrimps live amongst the branches.

In the small crevices, lobsters stay away from the large groupers who can take them in one gulp.

Yellow Clathria soft corals, cover part of the reef and the branches grow as a disorganized bunch on numerous planes and from all directions.

On the wall and the coral blocks, the green midnight stony corals bloom in currents and during the night extending their polyps to feed on the bypassing plankton.

Humpback Jackfish, rainbow runners and big eye trevally’s , five line snappers, fuseliers and surgeon fishes make way when the huge Napoleon passes by.

With incoming current hammerheads sharks have been seen.

This dive is a gift for live!

Source: Sun Diving School

Zulaikha Giri

Unique compared to any other giri in the Maldives, this giri looks like a teardrop from above and the variety of the reef formation makes you curious what comes next during the dive.

With at the North side a wall, the East side exposes a steep slope which drops down to 30 meters of depth, where small caves are covered with Faulkner’s corals, little tube like colonies in pink bright colors and the large polyps are generally only extended at night.

Black corals hosting long nose hawk fishes among clouds of glass fishes. Large gorgonian fans are attached to the steeper part of the giri and green stony corals cover a large plateau at a depth of 23 meters.

Colorful groupers swivel around the reef and fuseliers, red and black snappers hang around a depth of 12 meters. The west side of the giri is shallow with fine white coral sand and fields of green stony corals and large coral blocks.

Very big Jack fishes cruise around to find their prey, which is obviously the numerous small reef fishes at this part of the reef

Manta rays are feeding in this area as well on the plankton that flows over the shallow sandy ridge.

Source: Sun Diving School

All Rise

A 30 meters deep plateau connects with the outside reef of the Atoll and at the steep corner of the channel is the meeting point of snappers, giant trevally’s, blue fin jack fishes, snappers, surgeon fishes, emperors and napoleon wrasses.

Between 25 and 30 meters of depth large coral blocks are scattered around, near the reef with schooling five line snappers and emperors.

This is only the beginning; canyons, overhangs, caves and walls are lined up along the inside of the channel. The walls and overhangs are covered with the yellow Clathria soft corals, while the overhangs are crowded with blue and yellow cauliflower soft corals. Then again canyons appear with Dappled soft corals and followed up with reef parts, at 22 meters of depth, with red and yellow Clathria soft corals. Sting rays are in sight on the sandy patches of the bottom of the channel.

All rise for the safety stop and a view at the 7 meters deep top reef, packed with mushroom leather corals, builder and table corals, staghorn and sun corals. Amazing and very impressive!

Advanced and Nitrox license is advisable at this dive site.

Source: Sun Diving School

Vavathi Kurolhi

This giri starts at a depth of 2 meters and descends straight down to the 25 meters deep bottom.

The wall, small overhangs and sandy cliffs offer a diversity of Macro life. Giant clams, anemone colonies, branch corals, red and blue sponges on the reef; black corals full of glass fish and thorny oysters in the overhangs, overshadow large families of lobsters in the deeper crevices.

For people with patience and a good eye, there is a lot to discover; longnose hawkfishes in the black corals, nudibranches on the reef and gobies in the sandy parts. A variety of moray eels can be found, from the black cheek moray, giant moray, yellow margin moray to the white-mouth moray eel.

Bring you torch during the dive to discover the colorful inside of the over hangs.

Source: Sun Diving School

Fulhaa Dhandhu

With the current moving out of the Atoll, the starting point is inside the Atoll.

From 30 meters depth, suddenly a large stretch of reef appears with a maximum depth of 16 meters. Coral blocks with its natural inhabitants, like angel fishes, butterfly fishes, puffer fishes, trigger fishes, parrot fishes, banner fishes and emperors mark the entrance of a wide field that will be hard to cover even in one dive.

Whether the current is from the North or the South, you just drift with it in an easy matter.

Green turtles and Hawksbill turtles feed on the spiky soft corals that are spread around on the top reef.

Feathertail stingrays and blotched sting rays move from one sandy patch to the other to find crustaceans and feed on them.

Don’t focus too much on the colorful reef fishes because, tunas, barracudas and eagle rays might pass by at a short distance.

Source: Sun Diving School

Felivaru Corner

With mantas rays feeding on the surface and with the current flowing from West to East gives you the best start to begin this dive, apparently the shape of the reef moves the plankton in higher concentrations along this point then at other parts of the reef and therefore attracts the manta rays, who are eagerly swallowing large amounts of this nutritious food.

With very alive hard corals on the top, at a depth of 2 meters, the reef works its way down to a plateau at 22 meters of depth with huge table corals. Spiral whip corals, fire corals and terrace corals are spread out over the reef.

Especially the red coral grouper, oriental sweetlips and the purple spotted grouper are eye catchers on the reef.

Large shoals of fuseliers, red snappers, humback snappers swarm around at the corner.

Source: Sun Diving School

Velidhoo Faru

At the inside of the Atoll, , a very pretty reef at to the local Island Velidhoo guaranties a fulfilling dive with green turtles, hawksbill turtles and stingrays.

The wall is at its best at a depth between 10 and 20 meters with overhangs and canyons decorated with spiky soft corals, yellow Clathria soft corals and white Acabaria soft corals.

Golden basslets and blue tooth trigger fishes move as a large sheet from and to the reef in waving motions, very aware of the blue fin jack fishes hunting around for an easy bite.

Clown trigger fishes, angel fishes, butterfly fishes and damsel fishes don’t shy away when divers pass by.

This is a very good reef to bring your torch or photo camera.

Source: Sun Diving School

Kudey Kandu

Kudey Kandu is a channel dive and especially with strong currents the whole food chain is present.

The maximum depth is 30 meters, at the corner of the reef are coral blocks with spiky and Hemprich’s soft corals, knotted fan corals as well as table, staghorn and whip corals.

Huge jack fish, groupers, barracuda, napoleon, red and black snappers, fusiliers and stingrays cruise the reef while white tip and large grey reef sharks stay a little bit farther from the corner.

Advanced and Nitrox license is advisable for this exciting dive!

Source: Sun Diving School