A new diving season has arrive in the Maldives…

For more information on diving holidays, visit Maldives Dive Travel now!

The Maldives, an island nation located in the Indian Ocean and comprised of over 1000 atolls, features some of the world’s best scuba diving sites…

Maldives Diving Season

Iruvai, the North-East Monsoon, brings with her the Maldivian dry season, ushering in a distinct diving season.

Maldives Weather

The Indian Ocean has a great effect on the climate in Maldives by acting as a heat buffer; absorbing, storing, and slowly releasing the tropical heat. The temperature of the Maldives ranges between 24°C and 33°C throughout the year. Although the humidity is relatively high, the constant cool sea breezes keep the air moving and the heat mitigated.

The weather in the Maldives is affected by the large landmass of South Asia to the north. The presence of this landmass causes differential heating of land and water. These factors set off a rush of moisture-rich air from the Indian Ocean over South Asia, resulting in the southwest monsoon.

Two seasons dominate Maldives’ weather: The dry season, associated with the winter northeast monsoon “IRUVAI,” and the rainy season, brought by the summer southwest monsoon “HULHANGU.”

According to the traditional Maldivian calendar, the IRUVAI begins in December with typically strong, unsettled winds and rough seas that gradually travel down the Maldives from the north. It is divided into nine “Nakaiy,” or periods, with the last “Nakaiy” finishing in April. The “Iruvai” brings the driest weather period to the Maldives, where the air possesses a comparatively short sea track compared with that during the remainder of the year.

Diver hooked on the reef using a current hook

Currents in the Maldives

The exposure of the Maldives to the vast Indian Ocean ensures that an immense body of water is constantly flowing across the plateau on which these atolls are built. Oceanic currents are largely influenced by the direction of the trade winds. They flow from the NE to SW during the Iruvai and from SW to NE during the Hulhangu. They are of great strength, where currents in the channels near Male’ have been recorded at four knots or more.

Tidal currents flow according to the height of the tide and the direction of the prevailing winds, and are said to be much weaker than oceanic currents, though they causes velocity variations in the flow. At the atoll passages, current streams can be quite irregular due to the islands, reefs and sandy shoals.

Best Time to Dive in the Maldives

The North-East Monsoon is considered the best period to dive in the Maldives, as a result of continuous flowing of water into the atolls, especially the channels the feature clear water and lots of food for the pelagic creatures, such as the gray reef shark and the whale shark.

Due to the continuous flow of the North-East Monsoon current, the visibility becomes crystal clear, which is why this is one of the best times to go scuba diving in the Maldives.

Felidhu Atoll

The Felidhu Atoll, within the range of liveaboard diving, is often visited during the North-East Monsoon due to the high possibility of spotting some larger marine life.

Almost all the dive sites are channels in local “Kandu” based dives. The incoming current attracts lager fish and channel crossing has become a common way of performing dives in these channels. The entrances of the channels are at a depth of 28 to 30 meters and the width of these channel are no more than 150 meters.

Gray Reef Shark

Maldives Fish Life

Due to the North-East Monsoon‘s currents, the channels’ entrances are attractive to bigger fish, such as gray reef sharks, white tip reef sharks, schooling silver jack fish, tuna, schools of eagle ray and many more.

Early morning dives to hammerhead shark point “Fotteyo Kandu” is also a highlight during this season. Hammerheads are not only seen during the early morning hours here, but have also been seen by divers during the day.

Channels like Miyaru Kandu, Devana Kandu, Diggiri Kandu and Alimatha Dekunu Kandu are also well known among the liveaboards.

In addition to Felidu Atoll, other atolls, North and South Male’, Ari atoll, Meenu atoll and Baa atoll are also considered to be excellent diving sites during the North-East Monsoon.

If you are booked for a diving holiday this season, I strongly recommend that all the divers possess a current hook, have your scuba gear tuned up and get ready for a new season of diving in the Maldives!

For more information on diving holidays, visit Maldives Dive Travel now!

Three Dives

After a superb dive at Kuda Rah Thila (Protected Marine Area), Sting Ray headed towards Omadhoo Thila for the day’s third dive.

At Kuda Rah Thila the current was extremely strong but displayed plenty of fish. On the up current were Yellow Back Fusiliers and Thin Lined Fusiliers. The caves were filled with blue stripped snappers exhibiting a yellow cloud.

The current faded to a milder version on the second dive but didn’t change the fish life. More white tip reef sharks and other pelagic were seen.

For the third dive Sting Ray crossed over to South Male’ atoll and dived at Medhu Faru in late afternoon. Among the highlights were Giant Trevallies that gathered near the fallen coral blocks and leaf fish.

The visibility remained poor both at Southern Ari and South Male’ atoll and the current were flowing out of the atoll most of the time.

Yellow Back Fusilier

Last dive of the trip

Fortunately the current was flowing in to the atoll early morning at around 6:00. This gave the opportunity for the diver to begin their dive at Cocoa Corner and cross over to Kandooma Thila to the end of the dive and the divers witnessed heaps of Gray Reef Sharks.

For most divers or for the shark lovers this is a must to do dive but can be a very strenuous dive as divers might have to swim across /against the current and spend dive below 25 to 28 meter. This is the best method to see the channel entrance and observe gray reef sharks, white tip and lots and lots of pelagic.

Sting Ray embarks with 15 divers today on their last cruise for this season. The divers this week are British, French, German, Japanese and Singaporeans.

Having collected all the guests by mid day we headed to south Male’ atoll Guriadhoo Region and the orientation dive was made at Villivaru Giri.

The plan for this week is to move to south Ari atoll tomorrow after the first dive then to north Ari atoll and to finish it at Rasdhoo atoll.

Will keep all the reader updated on Sting Ray’s encounters and other activities as the week progresses.