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Diving in the Maldives
The Maldives is certainly ranked as one of the best diving
destinations of the world. There are certainly a few places on
earth, if any, at which divers could see mantas, whale sharks,
valleys of luscious soft corals, colorful gardens of hard
corals, huge tunas, eagle rays, a 1000 species of fish around
the reefs, countless species of invertebrates all within one
week, diving in warm clear waters. The atolls of the Maldives
are dotted with hundreds of dive sites with many more yet to be
discovered. However, so far only a tiny part of the country has
been explored by divers; thousands of kilometers of reef have
still to yield up their long-garnered secrets. It is only in the
atolls around Male’ that resorts have been opened, and only in
these atolls is diving permitted.
Inside almost all the atolls are a complex formation of reefs. A
number of these reefs are circular, enclosing a shallow lagoon,
others are irregular and submerged. Some of the best dive sites
are these submerged reefs called ‘thilas’, usually located in
the middle of the channel. These rise from the atoll floor to
within 10 metres of the surface.
Reef life is prolific – with the number of species of marine
life estimated to be in their tens of thousands. The sharp-eyed
diver would encounter species such as the frogfish, leaf fish,
ghost pipefish and a multitude of nudibranchs. Whether it is the
awesome manta ray, the graceful grey reef shark or the tiny,
brightly coloured flatworm, the Maldives has it all.
All resorts in the Maldives have professional dive schools with
multi-lingual instructors and conduct courses for beginners as
well as the advanced.
Many of the resorts have excellent house reefs. Just a short
swim from the beach and snorkellers too can experience the same
pleasures from the surface. |
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